The Remarkable Ogstons of Aberdeen: Flax, Candles and Soap

The origin of the Ogstons

“Ogston” is a rare (8,518^th most frequent) and highly localised locative or toponymic (one derived from a placename) surname.  At the 1881 GB Census, 286 of the 367 individuals recorded bearing that name lived in Aberdeenshire.  Others lived in nearby counties, 17 in Kincardineshire, 11 in Banff and 5 in Moray.  Additionally, another 10 individuals were recorded with the surname “Ogsten”, all living in Moray. This variant is possibly a machine mis-transcription of Ogston.   The derivation of “Ogston” is probably as a corruption of “Ogg’s Town” and there is circumstantial evidence to support that idea.  The surname “Ogg”, though rather more frequent than “Ogston”, is also found at its highest concentration in the North-East counties of Scotland.  Nairn 102/10^5, Moray 75/10^5, Banff 134/10^5, Aberdeen 121/10^5, Kincardine 62/10^5 and Angus 43/10^5.  Further, there was a parish of Ogston in Moray which was abolished through its merger with the adjacent parish of Kinnedar in 1642.  The new parish was called Drainy and contained the now well-known settlement of Lossiemouth.  Genealogical work by various members of the Ogston lineage (essentially what would now be called a “one surname” study) traced the occurrence of Ogston (and its variants such as “Hogeston”, “Auxton” and “Ogiston”) in the North-Eastern counties back to the start of the 12^th century.  This is about the time of the origin of surnames.  However, a direct lineage from the present back to the 13^th century has not been established, though there can be little doubt that all the Ogstons recorded in Aberdeenshire and nearby counties are related to each other.  About the beginning of the 13^th century, the Ogiston family was seated in the lands of Hogeston in Morayshire.  Much mention will elsewhere be made of the involvement of the Ogstons with the University of Aberdeen, which was formed in 1860 by the merger of two separate institutions, King’s College, established in 1495, and Marischal College, dating from 1593.  The chapel at King’s College was built between 1498 and 1509 and at least some of its oak seating dates back to about 1509.  It was the tradition for early King’s College students to carve their names into the woodwork in the chapel and the oldest dated name there is that of “J Ogston 1582”.  This is a most graphic illustration of the antiquity of the link between the Ogstons, the city and county of Aberdeen and the local universities.

 

Flax and thread

The lineage of Ogstons, which the present series of papers follows, can be traced back with confidence to William Auxton, born in 1706.  His wife was Elizabeth Ritchie and the couple’s first child, named Alexander, entered the world in 1734 at Pitsligo, Aberdeenshire, a parish located about four miles from Fraserburgh in the north-east of the county.  William subsequently became the schoolmaster at Tarves, located 16 miles north of Aberdeen.  He died at Tarves in 1774.  Alexander Ogston (1734) married Isabel Lind and the couple’s first child, Alexander (1766) proved to be highly significant for the subsequent success and prominence of this Ogston line.  He is thought to have migrated to Aberdeen city about 1785, aged 19, where he started a business as a lint and thread dealer, though a search of the Aberdeen Journal between 1785 and 1801 did not uncover any citations of his activities.  Lint and thread are derived from flax, which was widely grown during the 18^th century in Aberdeenshire.  It is unclear if Alexander Ogston (1766) was involved in the production of fibres from flax stems, a multistage process called flax dressing, requiring much skill on the part of the operative.  The immediate product, lint, is a fluffy, random arrangement of flax fibres, which can then be spun into thread for the manufacture of various grades of fine to coarse cloth.  Aberdeen had several significant flax weavers after 1750 and Alexander Ogston (1734) may simply have been an intermediary between the producers and the spinners and weavers, or he may himself have been a flax spinner.  From about 1820, flax cultivation in Aberdeenshire declined due to competition from imported cotton and a preference for imported flax, where this fibre was still employed, from Continental Europe.

 

Candles

The first indication of a diversification of Alexander Ogston (1766)’s lint and thread business came in an announcement in the Aberdeen Journal of 17 November 1802.  “Candlemaking.  Alexander Ogston, dealer in lint and thread in Aberdeen begs leave to acquaint his friends and the public that he has lately engaged an experienced candlemaker and commenced business in that line at his manufactory on the Lochside.  He has now on hand a large quantity of well-made candles which he can confidently recommend and will sell on reasonable terms.  An apprentice wanted to the candlemaking business”.  This advertisement was repeated on 24 November and 1 December of the same year.  Ten months later a further advertisement was made in the Aberdeen Journal.  “Alexander Ogston, Lochside, Aberdeen.  Begs leave to return thanks for past favours in the candle line and has now on hand a large quantity of spring-made candles, dipt and moulded which he can with confidence recommend to his friends and the public and will sell on reasonable terms.  Continues to deal in thread and lint as formerly”.  Candles were already being produced by the two main production methods, and the qualification “spring-made” may refer to tallow, then the main raw material for candle manufacture, being rendered from the fat of animals which were slaughtered at a time of year when they had more nutritious feed.  

At the earliest stage of his chandlery business, Alex Ogston (1766) seems to have sold directly to the public.  However, as production ramped up, the firm moved to trading exclusively on a wholesale basis, with local grocers retailing Ogston’s candles to the general population.  The reason for moving to wholesaling of candles was probably dictated by the progress made in mechanising the manufacturing process and the resultant upscaling of production.  In 1828, in the aftermath of a fire at the works, A Ogston (1766) advertised for sale “Damaged candle and tallow.  To be sold by public roup at Mr Ogston’s Candle Works Lochside for behoof of the insurers.  About 10 to 12 cwt dipt candles partially damaged in the late fire there.  Also, about 8cwt melted tallow affected merely in colour and as fit for soap-making as ever”.  This announcement gives some indication of the scale of production of candles by this year.  However, the mention of tallow “fit for soap-making” probably reflects the commonality of raw materials between candle- and soap-making and does not show that Ogstons were themselves manufacturing soap at this time.  That change came much later, in 1853.

 

The chemistry of candles and soap

Before considering the further development of the business started by Alexander Ogston (1766), it may be helpful to the reader to make a diversion into the processes involved in both candle- and soap-making and the market conditions for both types of product in Aberdeen and its environs, post-1750.

Tallow is released from the fatty parts of animals, typically cows and sheep, by boiling to separate the fat as a floating component, which can be collected largely free from the other tissue constituents, mainly proteins and water.  Animal fats vary in composition but essentially consist of triglycerides formed between one glycerol (glycerine) molecule and three fatty acid molecules, the most frequent of which are stearic, palmitic and oleic acids.  Tallow can be used directly in the manufacture of candles, but it burns with a smoky flame and emits an unpleasant smell.  Candles made from tallow are thus the cheapest.  Tallow can also be used to manufacture soaps.  This is achieved by hydrolysing the fat molecules with either sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide to produce glycerol (glycerine) and a mixture of soaps, which are salts of the fatty acids.  Sodium hydroxide generates hard soaps, while potassium hydroxide produces soft soaps.  Candles can also be produced from long chain saturated hydrocarbons with the general formula Cn H(2n+2).  Such hydrocarbons can be sourced from beeswax, whale oil or paraffin wax, which is produced in the distillation of crude oil.  Plant oils, such as palm oil, can also be used as raw material for both candle and soap manufacture.  Local sources of alkali in Scotland were wood ash and the ash produced by kelp burning, mainly generating potassium hydroxide.

 

Candle and soap manufacture in Aberdeen after 1750

A search of the Aberdeen Journal in the decades after 1750 reveals many references to manufacturers of soap, candles or both products in central Aberdeen.  Most of these producers were small-scale and their businesses were often ephemeral.  For example, in 1750, “Arthur Bradley soap boiler and candlemaker at John Lumsden’s Watchmaker, Exchequer Row, Aberdeen has now erected a factory for making candles”.  No further reference to Arthur Bradley has been found.  In 1767, Robert Duncan announced that he “continues to make tallow candles of all sorts at his house in the Gallowgate”.  Duncan appears to have been reasonably successful as in 1781 he sent a relative, Alexander Duncan, to Banff to manufacture candles there.  By 1783 Robert Duncan could announce a further significant business development.  “Robert Duncan and Sons have engaged Mr John Dent late soft soap maker in London.  Under his directions they have now completed a new soft soap house and now have soft soap ready for sale.  They also continue to manufacture all kinds of yellow and hard soap and dipped and moulded candles.  These articles may be had at their manufactory in the middle of Gallowgate”.  Sadly, this expansion came to nought as the same year it was announced that “Robert Duncan & Son soap and candlemakers in Aberdeen (have made) arrangements with creditors”.

Man dipping candles 1786

Ex-employees of defunct businesses would often set up in business themselves.  In 1798 the Aberdeen Journal contained the news that “Copland and Milne have resolved to give up their candle-making business within a short time”.  As a consequence, “John Bothwell Upperkirkgate Aberdeen left the house of Messrs Copland and Milne to set up on his own account.  Has a complete assortment of spring-made candles which he is selling off at 13s 6d per stone credit and 13s ready money, moulded at 14s 6d per stone credit and 14s ready money, Dutch weight”.  Another ex-employee of Copland and Milne also branched out on his own account.  “James Laing who has been 9 years in the house of Copland and Milne begs leave to acquaint the public that he has commenced business on his own account in the house lately possessed by Mr Shinnie, Flourmill Brae.  Will produce candles of all sorts”.  Copland and Milne soon resumed the manufacture of candles, in 1801, this time in partnership with their former employee, James Laing.  Initially the firm was located in Flourmill Brae (Mr Shinnie’s former premises) but subsequently moved to Shiprow, where they kept a “large mastiff dog”, presumably to deter thieves.  Finally, in 1813, the firm moved again, this time to Loch Street, where it continued trading until bankruptcy intervened in 1827.

The Napoleonic War extended from 1803 to 1815 during which Napoleon Bonaparte introduced a trade block between his continental allies and the UK.  Between 1802 and 1806 there was a substantial drop from 55% to 25% in trade with the Continent.  This must have had some impact on the import of raw materials, soap and candles and may have stimulated British producers to find home sources.  Another impediment to candle manufacture was the tax on candles which had been introduced in 1709.  It led to widespread tax dodging by small local manufacturers, and the Commissioners of Excise, in response, imposed heavy fines for possession of home-made candles or for the possession of soap-making implements.  The tax was eventually abolished in 1831.  Similarly, soap manufacture was taxed between 1712 and 1853.

 

Alexander Ogston (1766) and his son, Alexander Ogston (1799)

Alexander Ogston (1766) married Helen Milne in 1796 at Fyvie, Aberdeenshire.  The couple had five children, Sarah (1798), Alexander (1799), George 1801, Francis (1803) and Helen (1813).  Alexander (1799) was marked out by his father as being the one to become associated with the candle-making business and was its eventual inheritor.  From 1824, when he would have been 25 years old, Alexander (1799) had an entry in the Scottish Post Office Directory for Aberdeen, which described him as a Tallow-chandler, probably indicating the year in which he became a partner in the firm with his father.  This co-partnery of father and son continued until 1830, when the following notice appeared in the Aberdeen Journal of 29 September, announcing the exit of Alexander Ogston (1766) from the firm.  “Alex Ogston, tallow chandler, having in June last resigned business wholly in favour of his son, Alexander, begs to return his best thanks to his friends for the warm support which they have afforded him for a period of 45 years (ie from1785 when he would have been 19, though he was only a candlemaker from 1802) and now solicits that the same steady patronage be continued to his son who carries on the concern in the same premises as formerly for his own behoof.  With reference to the above notice, Alexander Ogston junior (1799), in acknowledging the favours of his friends and the public while in partnership with his father begs to assure them that the same care and attention shall be bestowed as heretofore upon their orders of which he respectfully solicits continuance.  His present stock of spring-made mould and dipt candles is extensive and being manufactured of the best materials and under his own immediate superintendence he can warrant them to give every satisfaction.  All debts owing to the late firm are payable to A O Jun by whom any claims against the concern will be discharged on being presented.  Aberdeen September 25, 1830”.  Subsequently, Alexander Ogston (1766) continued to have entries in local business directories, identifying him as a Tallow-chandler of 52 Loch Street, the same work address as his son, until 1833, after which he was described as “late Tallow-chandler”.

The subsequent life stories of Alexander Ogston (1799)’s siblings contain an interesting mix of outcomes.  Sarah Ogston (1798), the eldest child, married David Gill (1796) in 1825, a partner, with John Farquhar, in a firm of painters and glaziers, Farquhar & Gill, found near to the Lochside, where Alexander’s business was located.  Farquhar & Gill became very successful and later diversified into the manufacture of paints and varnishes.  The eldest child of Sarah Ogston and David Gill was endowed with the given names “Alexander” and “Ogston” after his maternal grandfather, and AO Gill took charge of one new firm when the original entity split into two, with James Farquhar (son of John) continuing as a plumber and brazier and AO Gill concentrating on designing and manufacturing paint.  In 1880, Alexander Ogston Gill led his firm to extensive new premises for paint manufacture, which became known as the North of Scotland Colour Works, located in Drum’s Lane.  This firm had remarkable longevity, continuing trading into the 1970s.  Alexander Ogston Gill, a very active member of commercial and civic society in Aberdeen will reappear in this series of stories about the Ogston clan.

Farquhar & Gill's Colour Shop

George Ogston (1801), the third child of Alexander Ogston (1766), did not succeed in life, though little is known of his activities other than that he emigrated to Australia.  He had borrowed money from his father, became insolvent, was unable to repay his parental debt and was almost completely excluded from the benefits of his father’s will.  “George has already received his share of patrimony and has discharged his legal rights, yet I am disposed to provide for the event of his circumstances being reduced, therefore if my executors shall see him in destitution or in want of assistance they are hereby empowered to pay to him for his alimentary use during his life the dividends of the said 90 Gas shares or £20 per annum in lieu thereof at their option”.

Helen Ogston (1813), Alexander Ogston (1766)’s youngest child, also made a good marriage, to a Londoner, William Reid, a ship and insurance broker, who became the manager of the Aberdeen Ship Insurance Company.

Francis Ogston (1803) was, without doubt, the intellectual of the family and the individual who, though not lacking in commercial acumen, sought his career in the practice of medicine, rather than as a merchant or a manufacturer.  An extensive account of the life of Francis Ogston (1803) and of his sons, Alexander (1844) and Francis (1846), all prominent medical men, will be given elsewhere.  But how did Francis become involved in medicine, rather than seeking his career exercising the traditional, commercial bent of the family?  The answer probably lies in the location of the family homes and the family business.

 

The location of the Ogston business and Ogston family houses

Although Alexander Ogston (1766) had arrived in Aberdeen in 1785, no definite information has been found concerning the location of his business until 1802, or of his home until 1807.  Between 1802 and 1822, the Ogston manufactory was said to be in, or at, Lochside.  This is a reference to the artificial loch, fed by an aquaduct from the Denburn and by other water sources, which was located in the area to the NW of Marischal College now occupied by Loch Street and the adjacent land to the west.  The loch, in Medieval times, was the main source of water for town residents but it became over-exploited and polluted.  It shrank progressively and by 1838 it had completely dried up, the land it once occupied being developed for other purposes and the sinuous shape of the loch in a plan of 1828 now being reflected in the course of Loch Street.  The location of the Ogston manufactory at Lochside may well have been in order to obtain a ready supply of water for the processes employed and the name may reflect the situation before the development of the thoroughfare of Loch Street.

Aberdeen Loch 1789

 Loch Street 1840

In 1807 and 1808, “Mr Ogston”, probably Alexander Ogston (1766), was living in Frederick Street adjacent to “three genteel lodgings” which were then newly built, though it is unclear if he was renting his house, or if it was in his ownership.  This dwelling lay about 1/3 mile from the Ogston manufactory.  In 1811, a Mr Ogston was living in North Street, probably a little nearer to the Ogson works, in a house “belonging” to him.  However, by 1824, the family home of Alexander Ogston (1766) was definitely located in 2 Gallowgate, close to the northern end of Marischal College, the university located in the New Town.  The date of first occupation of 2 Gallowgate can thus be tentatively placed between 1811 and 1824 and the Ogstons lived at this location until 1832.  The domestic arrangements of the Ogston family and the office address of the manufactory underwent several changes in the period 1833 – 1842, in part brought about by family deaths and marriages.  For a short period about 1833, the home of Alexander Ogston (1766) and his family became 54 Lochside before changing again in 1834 to Ogston’s Court, 84 Broad Street for Alexander (1766) and his son Francis (1803).  (Broad Street runs along the western side of Marischal College and Gallowgate is a northwards continuation of Broad Street, the boundary between the two being placed at the northern extremity of Marischal College).  The elder son, Alexander (1799), set up home in a different property, 56 Lochside.  This was the year of his marriage, so it is not surprising that he would wish to occupy different premises from his parents and siblings.  Alexander (1799) moved house again the following year,1835, to the house next door, 56 Lochside.  He probably remained there until the death of his father in 1838 (though the name of the property changed to 56 Loch Street), when he moved his home to the Ardoe estate, located about 5 miles from the manufactory at Banchory-Devenick, close to the south bank of the river Dee.  Helen Milne, the widow of Alexander Ogston (1799) continued to live at Ogston’s Court until her death in 1842.  Francis Ogston (1803) also remained at Ogston’s Court.  He married in 1841 (at Ardoe) and the house in Ogston’s Court became his family home until 1844.  Francis Ogston, who was born in 1803, had lived adjacent to Marischal College as a youth and must have been familiar with the University and its activities, including gowned academics and noisy students, from daily observation.  One of the main academic occupants of Marischal College was the Medical Faculty.  An Arts curriculum was also taught at Marischal.  It is not a surprise to find that the intelligent Francis should aspire to become a Marischal College undergraduate himself.  The biographies of Francis Ogston (1803) and his two medical sons, Alexander (1844) and Francis junior (1846) will be dealt with elsewhere.

Ogston's Court (L) Marischal College entrance (R)

Memorial to Alexander Ogston (1766) and his wife

There are several traditional Scottish architectural terms which require explanation.  A “court” consisted of buildings, often houses, on both sides of an access perpendicular to a main road.  Its access was narrow and suitable only for pedestrian movements.  In contrast a “wynd” had an access wide enough for a horse and cart.  A “close” was a gated community without open access.  Closes and courts were often entered via a pend (as in the case of Ogston’s Court), a covered passageway through a building sited on the street.  Closes, wynds and courts were typically named after the owner.  The name “Ogston’s Court” and the fact that this name is incised in the stonework over the pend, likely from the date of construction, suggests that it was probably built, or at least owned, by someone with the surname “Ogston”.  Reference to historical plans of Aberdeen puts the date of its construction between 1746, when it was not present, and 1773 when it could be clearly recognised adjacent to the quadrangle of Marischal College, on the College’s northern border.  If this interval is valid, construction and initial ownership of Ogston’s Court could not have been due to Alexander Ogston (1766), though “my dwelling house in Broad Street (ie 84 Broad Street, Ogston’s Court) where we now live in family together” was in his ownership in 1838, the year of his death.  Could that role have been fulfilled by a relative, perhaps his father, Alexander (1734)?

Both the will and the inventory of personal possessions of Alexander Ogston (1766) are available for consultation.  At the time of his death in 1838 he had acquired considerable wealth, though it is unclear if any assets were derived from an inheritance as opposed to being generated by his own commercial activities, principally manufacturing candles.  The total value of his personal and moveable estate was just over £6,046 (about £713,190 in 2021 money).  Included in the list of assets were shares in a number of significant companies, Aberdeen Gas Company, North of Scotland Assurance Company and North of Scotland Banking Company    Additionally, he owned significant real estate.  The landed property of Ardoe had just been acquired before his death (he died at Ardoe on 27 July 1838) and, in addition to the house at Ogston’s Court, 84 Broad Street, and the house at 2 Gallowgate, he also owned “the tenement of houses … situated between the Gallowgate and Loch Street of Aberdeen” and three let properties at Lochside.  In 1863, “The family house in Ogston’s Court, Broad Street and the upper floor in Broad Street entering from no 2 Gallowgate” were offered for let and were still in the ownership of the Ogston family.

From 1824, the address of the manufactory changed many times and reference to the Scottish Post Office Directory for Aberdeen allows those movements to be traced.  In that year the address of A Ogston’s Works (possibly the office postal address) was given as 52 Loch Street and remained so until 1832, when it changed for one year to 53 Loch Street.  Subsequent alterations were as follows.  1833, 53 Loch Street; 1834 – 1839, 55 Loch Street; 1840, 86 Loch Street; 1841 – 1846, 88 Loch Street, 1847 – 1849, 86 and 88 Loch Street; 1850 – 1855, 86 Loch Street, 1856 – 1862, 84 and 86 Loch Street; 1863 – 1869, 92 Loch Street.  The fundamental significance of this transformation is likely to have been the almost constant development and expansion of the candle and (from 1853) soap works as new buildings were constructed, old buildings re-purposed, and additional properties acquired.  The Works evolved throughout the 19^th century within a block of land bordered by Loch Street in the west and Gallowgate in the east.  Some of the properties used by Alexander Ogston (1799) for his own domestic accommodation (54 and 56 Loch Street) were adjacent to buildings used on occasion as the firm’s office address (52, 53, 55 Loch Street).  During the 1830s, Alexander (1799), in effect, lived at his place of work.  Similarly, in the late 1840s and early 1850s, he used other Loch Street properties (86 and 88 Loch Street) as domestic accommodation in the city while his main home was at Ardoe.  Both numbers 86 and 88 were used as company accommodation from time to time, occasionally simultaneously with domestic uses.  In 1849, no. 86 Loch Street was described as Ogston’s warehouse where retailers could make their enquiries.  In 1863 it became surplus to the firm’s requirements and was advertised for let.  “The situation is well adapted for carrying on a wholesale or manufacturing business and if wanted considerable accommodation can be got behind”.  After 1863, the office address of the firm changed to 92 Loch Street and remained so until 1922.

Part of Soap and Candle Works

Between 1824 and 1853, when the tax on soap was abolished and soap manufacture was added to the other activities at the Ogston factory, there were other indications of the growth and expansion of the Works.  The first identified export of candles was to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1839 when 28 boxes were despatched.  Further consignments followed to the same destination in 1839 (25 boxes), 1840 (61 boxes).  Other Aberdeen manufacturers were exporting to the same destination, too.  Ogstons were also notably successful in supplying the needs of local institutions, such as the hospitals, the prison and the harbour board, who tendered their requirements annually for tallow and candles.  By 1850, Ogstons had started importing tallow from Hamburg.

 

The relationship with the Price Candle Company

 Eighteen forty-five saw a significant development for Alexander Ogston (1766)’s candle business when the firm became agents in the North of Scotland for Edward Price & Co, London, then and still today the most important candle manufacturer in Britain.  Price established a factory at Belmont, Vauxhall and “Belmont” was used as a trademark to distinguish their products.  The company, since 1847 called “Price’s Patent Candle Company”, had been established in 1830 by William Wilson and Benjamin Lancaster.  It developed technology for manufacturing stearine, the triglyceride of stearic acid, from coconut oil.  Stearine, a fat, has a high melting temperature and is thus ideal for the manufacture of candles, which are called composite candles.  They are odourless when burning and produce a bright light.  Up to this time the best candles were made from beeswax, but it was a much more expensive raw material than coconut oil.  Composites were supplied to Queen Victoria for her wedding to Prince Albert in 1840 and Price has held a Royal warrant ever since.  By 1849 the Belmont factory employed 700 people and consumed 4,000 tons of vegetable oils each year.  While retaining stocks of “Patent Belmont Wax, Sperm and Composite Candles” to supply the local wholesale trade, Ogstons also had an arrangement with Price for bulk orders (“not less than twelve dozen”) for local customers to be dispatched direct from the Belmont factory.  “Wax” referred to candles made from paraffin wax and “sperm” to candles manufactured using the wax component of sperm whale oil.  Ogstons clearly saw this agency for Price as being very important as they always stressed the linkage in their advertising.  It gave them access to superior, if more expensive, products than the tallow candles that they manufactured in Aberdeen.  The following advertisement appeared in the Aberdeen Journal in 1848.  “The Patent Belmont Candles.  The subscriber has this week received a full supply of the above goods which comprehend – Belmont Wax, Belmont Sperm, Belmont Stearine Sperm in 3lb boxes, Belmont Composite and Belmont Night Mortars.  These candles are strongly recommended to the notice of customers possessing as they do all the essential qualities of the best wax and sperm at about one third of the cost.  They require no snuffling and in burning the combustion is so perfect that the most delicate walls and furniture remain unsullied while a purer atmosphere much more favourable to health and comfort is insured than when gas or oil light is used.  Alex Ogston, Tallow-chandler.  Agent for Price’s Patent Candle Co in the North of Scotland.  86 Loch Street”.  Price also supplied a variety of other products through Ogstons, including “Wax and Composite Moons for carriage and gig lamps”, “Patent Belmont Oil”, cocoa nut oil, Argand Oil and machinery oil.  By 1850 Ogstons were themselves manufacturing “Albert Mortars and Child’s Night Light”, possibly by licensing the processes from Price who were vigilant in the defence of their intellectual property rights.  Other products were also supplied by Price, including black or coloured sealing wax for bottles and parcels.  In 1852, Price also supplied the “Patent Distilled Palm Candle”, which Ogstons qualified as “not as good as best composites but superior to any other on the market and much cheaper”.

Price's Belmont Candle Factory

 Ogstons begin to manufacture soap

Alexander Ogston (1799) announced the next major advance in his business, inevitably via the Aberdeen Journal, in August 1853.  “To the trade.  The subscriber begs to acquaint his friends and the public that he has been making arrangements at his works for the manufacture of hard and soft soaps and is now sending out the latter sort in firkins (small barrel with a capacity of about 41 litres) and half firkins.  In the month of September, he expects to be in a position to offer some of the kinds of hard soap.  Having spared no expense in procuring a stock of good material and having engaged a maker of great experience he trusts to be able to supply a first-class soap at the lowest market rate.  Alex Ogston Aberdeen 2d August 1853”.  As with every other development made by the firm, it was planned, deliberate and backed with the necessary human and financial capital.  In the 1854 edition of the Scottish Post Office Directory (text likely submitted early in 1853), Alexander Ogston (1866) now described himself as "Tallow Chandler and Soap Maker" and by mid-1853 his works were described as the “Soap and Candle Manufactory”.  The first soap produced was soft soap, made using potassium hydroxide as the saponifying agent.  Hard soaps, made using sodium hydroxide, followed in September 1855 with the following announcement in the press.  “Hard and Soft Soaps.  The subscriber begs to acquaint the trade that having completed the erection of New Works for the production of Hard Soaps he will now be able to supply both hard and soft in any quantity on the best terms and of a quality equal to any in the market.  Alexr Ogston.  Aberdeen Soap and Candle Manufactory, 86 Loch Street”.  Diversification of soap products was rapid.  “The different sorts of soaps, namely, White, Mottled, Pale Yellow and Soft can now be had at the subscriber’s works of best quality and on the best terms”.  Significantly, the advertisement, which was repeated many times, added that “The soaps all bear the maker’s stamp”.  In the coming years, this message would be pressed home relentlessly – beware of inferior imitations! 

Eighteen fifty-five saw another development of great importance when Alexander Milne Ogston (1836), the elder son of Alexander (1799), then aged 19, was taken into the firm, though the significance of the event was likely recognised as such by few observers at the time.

The relationship between Ogstons and Price’s Patent Candle Company continued and, with the latter increasing its manufacturing capacity, a price reduction was offered to wholesalers by Ogstons in 1857.  The same advertisement also noted, “A supply of Belmont glycerine soap made from Price’s pure glycerine is to hand.  This soap is much recommended for washing children and shaving, etc.  Softens the hands and prevents chapping.  Most agreeable toilet soap”.  It appeared that Ogstons was now an agent for Price’s soaps too.  Glycerine, which has hand-softening properties, was a by-product of the saponification of triglycerides.  Another innovative product, Whitmore & Craddock’s University candles (manufactured by Price’s Patent Candle Company) was offered by Ogstons to “Universities, the Clergy, the Bar, Students, Schools and Reading Societies in General”.  This relationship with the leading London candle-maker may have brought the realisation to Alexander Ogston (1899) that his own candle manufacturing had not advanced beyond the production of cheap, basic tallow candles and that more diversity was necessary for further advancement.  That change appeared in 1861 with a major investment in new plant to produce candles with better burning characteristics.  “Subscriber begs respectfully to acquaint his friends and the public that he has just completed an extensive distilling apparatus on the most approved principles for enabling him to bring out the various sorts of stearine and composite candles of a quality at least equal to the best makers in the Kingdom.  In future an ample supply of the various sorts will be kept in stock and in soliciting the continuing support of his friends the subscriber begs to assure them that it will be his study at all times to produce first class goods on the most liberal terms.  The stearine and composite candles will be found to be an agreeable and economical light, require no snuffing and emit no smoke while burning.  The trade only supplied.  Alexander Ogston, The Aberdeen Soap and Candle Works, 86 Loch Street”.  Stearine would have been distilled from a plant oil, most likely palm oil, which would have been imported.

During the mid-19^th century there was a substantial whaling and sealing fleet operating out of Scottish ports, principally in the north-east, where Peterhead was the most important base.  In 1859, Alexander Ogston advertised “a quantity of new seal oil” for sale, which was likely to have been sourced from the local fleet.  From time-to-time other new products, outside the soap and candle lines were also offered.

Ogstons continued to improve the soaps that they produced.  Soft soap was used for household purposes but often had bad odour.  In 1862 Ogstons advertised an improved version.  “The frequent inquiry for soft soap free from the objectionable smell of the ordinary quality has induced the subscriber to manufacture a superior article from the purer and sweeter oils.  This quality of soap being free from all unpleasant odour and possessed of great detergent power is specially suitable for household purposes and for cleansing all animals particularly horses, cows and dogs besides being beneficial to their skins.  It is also valuable for cleaning plate, paint and all kinds of leather harness.  The packages which are firkins, half-firkins and 7lb tins bear the maker’s name and will be supplied by any respectable grocer in town or country and wholesale at the works”. 

In 1862, Ogstons advertised a wider range of sophisticated candles for sale which had been manufactured locally.  “Stearine, Wax, Sperm and Composite Candles all entirely manufactured at the subscriber’s works are strongly recommended to dealers and others.  Will be found to be greatly superior to most candles on the market”.  This development would have rendered redundant the agency agreement with the Price company.  Although no definite date has been found for the termination of the agreement, the last year that it was definitely in operation was 1861.  Interestingly, in 1875 Ogstons recruited a long-time employee of Price, Mr James Lee, to work for them in Aberdeen.  He must have walked out of the Belmont works with a considerable amount of know-how in his head.

 

Trouble with the neighbours  

However, the development of a major manufacturing facility, which generated obnoxious odours and other nuisances, in a location closely surrounded by housing near the centre of Aberdeen was bound to generate opposition.  In 1861, residents “in and about Loch Street” sent a memorial to the Aberdeen Police Commissioners complaining about Ogston’s operations.  It was written in lurid, over-egged terms typical of NIMBYs everywhere and was considered by the Nuisance Removal Committee.  The effusions from the works were said to be “not only most obnoxious to the smell but we believe highly injurious to human life”.  The memorialists, 31 in number, went on to say, “in strongly emphasised manuscript” that “at times the stench from this pest house is really unbearable causing giddiness in the head, sickness at the stomach, pains and weakness of the eyes and a sort of languid stupor over the whole body”.  If this “terrible pest” were not immediately removed the consequence would be that the area around the works would soon “become tenantless”.  Alexander Ogston (1799) denied these claims and Dr Jackson and an inspector were sent to examine the allegations on the ground.  Their conclusion was that there was nothing with which they could find fault and no further action was taken.  Tallow rendering had been in operation at the site for almost 60 years and the smells generated were considered to be an inevitable and acceptable consequence to be tolerated in the interests of the local economy.  But the opposition to Ogstons’ operations inevitably resurfaced, the next time in 1866.  A new memorial from complainants was passed to Alexander Ogston (1799) and he was robust in the defence of his firm.  Ogstons had installed a chimney which was 120ft in height in order to conduct smells away from the site and to dilute them in the atmosphere.  The only odours remaining were those due to fresh fatty material and they were unavoidable for any fat melter.  In retaliation Mr Ogston labelled “one or two neighbours” as being “at constant loggerheads with everybody and everything round them”.  The whole works were open to inspection and the firm would consider implementing any reasonable measure to reduce smells.  Not all members of the Nuisances Removal Committee supported the Ogston position but there was no mood to take the matter any further, the Lord Provost stating that he had been passing Ogstons for the last 50 years and in that time things had got better.  Ogstons had made many improvements and he was confident that that approach would continue.  Further consideration of the matter was dropped.  Another issue affecting relations with the neighbours of the Soap and Candle Works arose in 1868. As part of Ogstons’ expansion plans, the firm requested permission from the Aberdeen Police Commissioners to close-up the lane, called Alexander’s Court, running between Gallowgate and Loch Street on the north side of the Works, so as to allow the firm to purchase property on the other side of the route.  The request was not supported, on the grounds that the lane was a public thoroughfare for pedestrians.  That was not the end of the matter, but it was the end of Alexander Ogston (1799)’s involvement with it, as the Grim Reaper called before the next move got fully underway.  Alexander Ogston (1799) did have one final success before his demise.  In March 1869, he applied for permission to move the manufacture of composite candles (and the associated distillation of palm oil) “to a space of ground bordering on Innes Street and extending about 100 yds back from Loch Street and adjoining the premises presently occupied by him in Loch Street”.  Permission was granted.  However, the cause of his death, which was preceded by a long period of chronic disability (see below), raises the possibility that Alexander (1799) may only have been indirectly or marginally involved in the firm’s strategy in the years immediately preceding his demise.

 

Alexander Ogston (1799) becomes increasingly wealthy

Although Alexander Ogston (1799), like his father before him, was largely concerned with the development of his business, his increasing wealth gave him status in the city of Aberdeen, disposable income to support causes not directly related to the promotion of soap- and candle-making and, as the period extended, time to pursue non-commercial activities.  Further, the acquisition of the Ardoe estate by his father in 1838 brought with it both obligations and expectations that Alexander (1799) would involve himself in local affairs on Lower Deeside, such as participation in the activities of the parish church in Banchory-Devenick.  His first detected donation to charities helping the poor was in 1847 when Alexander (1799) subscribed £2 for the relief of destitution in the Highlands caused by blighting of the potato crop, which had started in 1846.  Other appeals that he supported included the Aberdeen United Coal Fund in 1854, Indian Famine Relief in 1861, distress amongst the unemployed in Lancashire in 1862 and relief to unemployed operatives in Aberdeen in 1868.  Interestingly, the staff of the Loch Street works also made three separate donations for the relief of the unemployed in Lancashire in 1862.  Further, Alexander Ogston (1799) took on the role of supporting civic society and civic infrastructure, by subscribing to the St Nicholas belfry appeal, the completion of the Market-house spire in Stonehaven (the county town of Kincardineshire, the county where Ardoe was located), the elimination of the debt of the Aberdeen Public Baths and the Aberdeen Music Hall organ fund.  Significantly, as will later be seen, he also gave money to the City of Aberdeen Artisan Volunteer Artillery and Rifle Corps.  Patriotism was a strong component of his personal creed and in 1854 he became a member of the local committee supporting the raising of a Patriotic Fund for the relief of the widows and orphans of soldiers, sailors and marines killed in the war with Russia.  Alexander (1799)’s donations were often in the range £1 - £3, seemingly trivial sums today, but then worth, in 2021 money, about £140 - £420.  Though Alexander Ogston (1799) appears not to have been much interested in national or local politics (he did support the Liberal candidate, J Dyce Nicol, at the general election of 1865) he contributed in other ways to the development of civic society, becoming a gentleman member of the Aberdeen Banff and Kincardine Agricultural Society.  His Ardoe gardener, Peter Elder, was a regular winner at local horticultural shows.  In Aberdeen, Alexander (1799) was one of the Dean of Guild’s assessors and often an invitee to major civic ceremonies such as the granting of the Freedom of Aberdeen to worthy individuals.  He was appointed a Justice of the Peace for Kincardineshire and in 1844 he was one on a long list of signatories who wrote to the Lord Lieutenant of the county opposing the repeal of the Corn Laws.  The Banchory-Devenick Agricultural Association held an annual ploughing match, where the ploughmen pitted their skills against each other and Alexander Ogston (1799), as was expected of major landowners, contributed to the prize fund.

 

The death of Alexander Ogston (1799)

The cause of Alexander Ogston (1799)’s death was given as progressive locomotor ataxia of 12 years' standing.  He died at 9 Golden Square, Aberdeen and the medical practitioner who certified the cause of Alexander’s demise was his brother, Professor Francis Ogston, who at the time lived at 156 Union Street, a short walk from Golden Square.  This condition is characterised by erratic movements of the arms and legs and gets worse over time, due to an advancing degeneration of the posterior white column of the spinal cord.  There are several possible causes of the condition, including Huntingdon’s Chorea, pernicious anaemia and multiple sclerosis, but perhaps the most likely cause in those pre-antibiotic days was chronic syphilis, which is due to a bacterial infection.  However, caution should be exercised in attributing Alexander (1799)’s condition to a serious venereal disease, which at this distance cannot be proved, as the agent of his death.

Alexander Ogston (1799) had acquired considerable wealth by 1869, the year of his demise.  The inventory of his personal estate was valued at just over £54,560 (about £6,910,167 in 2021 money).  His ownership of the candle and soap manufactory contributed about £40,000 of value to the total.  He also owned significant shareholdings in various banks, insurance and railway companies.    There was a touching expression of confidence in the sense of family cohesion by Alexander (1799), demonstrated by the naming of his brother Francis, whom he clearly held in high regard, as the sole trustee of his will, the suggestion that Francis could take advice from his sons-in-law and his sons to ensure that the father’s wishes were being appropriately met and, finally, in the fulsome tribute he paid to his wife of 35 years, Elliot.  “I commend to your special care and regard my beloved wife with whom I have so long lived in the greatest love and affection …”.  Alexander (1799) recognised that he could not exercise absolute control over his assets from beyond the grave and that he needed to invest in the good sense and probity of his brother, Francis (1803).  Alexander Ogston (1799) was very keen that his business should continue under the stewardship of his two sons, Alexander Milne Ogston (1836) and James Ogston (1845), though the company did not come as a gift to his offspring but as a shared debt to his trust.  The new company name and ownership was announced though the Aberdeen Journal in February 1871, rather more than a year after the death of Alexander Ogston (1799).  “Notice is hereby given that the representatives of the late Alexander Ogston of Ardoe, Soap and Candle manufacturer Aberdeen ceased at death on the 11th day of December 1869 to have any interest in the business carried on by him in Loch Street Aberdeen; and that since that date the subscribers Alexander Milne Ogston now of Ardoe and James Ogston both residing in Aberdeen have carried it on and will in future carry it on for their own behoof under the firm of Alexander Ogston and Sons.  Aberdeen 25th Feb 1871.  F Ogston, Sole testamentary trustee and executor of the late Alexander Ogston of Ardoe”.

 

Alexander Ogston (1799)’s family

Alexander Ogston (1799) and his wife, Elliot Lawrence (1813) had a family of six, four girls and two boys.  Alexander’s sons, as already stated, took over the running of the Loch Street manufactory.  The three girls who survived to adulthood all made good marriages, though their sister, Helen (1839), died at the tragically young age of ten years.  Elliot, the oldest girl in the family, married John Miller, the wealthy owner of the Sandilands Chemical works located next to the Gas Works in Cotton Street.  John Miller’s operation was known locally as “Stinky Miller’s” betraying the nature of his business.  At the time of marriage, John Miller was 46 and Elliot Ogston was 25.  Sarah Ogston (1841) was the third daughter in the family, and she married Peter Moir Clark, a graduate of Marischal College who became a lecturer in Mathematics at Cambridge University.  The youngest girl in the family was Amelia (1848) who was unmarried at the time of her father’s death, but who subsequently joined with Edward Nicholls Carless, an MB CM graduate from Marischal College in 1871.  He subsequently took up a medical practice in Devizes, Wiltshire.  The considerable residue of Alexander Ogston (1799)’s estate was shared equally between his surviving offspring.

Sandilands Chemical Works

 

Purchase of the Ardoe estate

The Ardoe estate had been bought by Alexander Ogston (1766) shortly before he died in 1838 and it subsequently became the country home of his son Alexander (1799) when he bought the property from the trustees of his father’s estate.  During his early career, Alexander (1799) had generally lived close to his place of work but as the firm became more successful and he entrusted to others the daily management of the works, he was able to live, while in the city of Aberdeen, in more salubrious surroundings.  About 1865 he bought a grand town house, 9 Golden Square.  The medieval street pattern of Aberdeen had been overhauled in the early years of the 19^th century by the construction of Union Street, a wide, long (about one mile) and handsome (it was progressively lined with many elegant granite buildings) east – west thoroughfare named after the Act of Union with Ireland in 1800.  This was a major feat of engineering requiring the partial flattening of St Catherine’s Hill and the bridging of the Putachieside and Denburn valleys to remove all significant gradients from the new road.  The crossing of the Denburn was not completed until 1805 and the first major development west of this location was the construction of Golden Square in 1810.  This was a rectangle of elegant town houses surrounding a central landscaped area opening onto the north side of the new road.  In the first half of the 19^th century, the environs of Union Street were the place where many of Aberdeen’s wealthy people chose to live.  In Alexander Ogston (1799)’s will he gave his wife two options for her living arrangements after his death.  She could either get the life benefits of the Ardoe lands and estate or receive £450 per year (about £57,000 in 2021 money) and full possession of the house at 9 Golden Square.  In 1871 she was living at 9 Golden Square and was described as an annuitant, so it appears that she chose the town house option for her residence.  Her sons Alexander M and James and her daughter Amelia were also resident there on Census night, all three of them being unmarried at the time.  The family was attended by three servants.  At the following census in 1881, widow Mrs Elliot Ogston was still living at 9 Golden Square, and she appears to have lived there until she died in 1886, after which 9 Golden Square was sold.

9 Golden Square

 

A Ogston & Sons comes into being

The new firm of A Ogston & Sons thus came into being after the death of Alexander Ogston (1799) in 1869 and was described as “Alex. Ogston & Sons, Soap and Candle Manufacturers, 92 Loch Street” in the 1870 edition of the Scottish Post Office Directory for Aberdeen.  Two sons were involved in the management of the new entity, Alexander Milne Ogston (1836) and James Ogston (1845) and at the time of their father’s death, they were respectively 33 and 24 years of age.  Alexander Milne had been working in the old firm since 1855, aged 19, though it is unclear when brother James started work in the soap and candle business but at this early stage of their collaboration, Alexander Milne was clearly the more senior in terms of age and experience of the business.  AM Ogston’s education has only been barely uncovered.  At the age of 12 he was a pupil at the Writing and Drawing School of Mr Francis Craigmyle, where his performance was judged to be only 3^rd class in writing, but that had improved to second class by the following year.  Two years later his performance was estimated as first class.  It is possible that he also attended Aberdeen Grammar School before entering the family firm, since in 1906 he was invited to attend the Aberdeen Grammar School Former Pupils’ Club reunion.  Perhaps, because his father had early designated him as a successor in the Soap and Candle business, no thought was given to Alexander Milne pursuing higher education.  The education of James Ogston (1845) has only been uncovered in outline.  In 1853 he too attended Mr Craigmyle’s classroom in writing and drawing in Aberdeen, where he was a prize-winner.  Subsequently, he was a pupil at Dollar Academy, five miles east of Stirling.  For both sons, their most formative educational experiences were probably encountered within the firm.  For each it was a case of “learning by doing”.

 

More trouble with the neighbours

Probably the first major issue to confront the Ogston brothers arose even before the death of their father in December 1869.  A month before this tragic event, a further memorial was presented to the Aberdeen Police Commissioners by 179 disgruntled neighbours of the Soap and Candle Works claiming that Alexander’s Court had always been a public thoroughfare and therefore could not legally be blocked by Ogstons with a paling fence at both ends, as appeared to have happened.  Was this the high-handed action of the Ogston brothers, in a hurry to get on with the development of their new commercial charge?  Ogstons, through their legal agent, C&PH Chalmers, denied that Alexander’s Court had even been a public thoroughfare and the matter was referred for decision to an open committee along with the Law Agent.  But local feelings were running high, and the protesters were not prepared to wait for an official decision on the matter.   Direct action ensued two weeks later when a crowd of men attacked and destroyed the fence at its Loch Street end before moving on to the other barrier, which received similar treatment, despite Ogston’s employees hosing down the protesters.  There was no intervention by the police.  By the next morning, Ogstons had replaced the barriers with structures of a more robust construction.  This further aroused the ire of the protesters who descended on the new structures and again smashed them, along with some of the Works’ windows, despite again being sprayed with water in the cold of an Aberdeen December.  The police were present but “with the most imperturbable coolness enjoyingly surveyed the animated scene and, for once at a scrimmage, took the side of no one”.  It was rumoured that this inaction by the arm of the law was due to a Police Commissioner actively sympathising with the cause of the mob.  The barriers were not re-erected and Ogstons decided to await the emergence of a legal decision.

The Police Commissioners seemed to struggle to reach a decision in the Alexander’s Court case because by May of the following year no conclusion had been announced, when a further petition was presented by 12 locals, perhaps fearing the worst, asking the Commissioners to look after the interests of the residents, should Ogstons again try to block access.  The Dean then visited the Court and found that it was not shut off.  Also, he had been assured that Ogstons had no plans to do so.  Matters remained calm until November 1870, when the unhappy residents of the Loch Street area convened a public meeting to discuss Alexander’s Court.  The conclave passed three resolutions.  Firstly, that the Police Commissioners had a duty to maintain intact every street, lane, court and alley for the use of the community and secondly, to assert that Alexander’s Court had been a public thoroughfare since “time immemorial” and that the Police Commissioners must take action to maintain that right.  The third resolution established a committee to carry out the first two resolutions.  About this time, Alexander Milne Ogston (1836) must have realised that an overly legalistic approach, even if formally successful would only exacerbate the bad feeling which had developed between A Ogston & Sons and their neighbours.  AM Ogston had sought an interdict against Mr Gall, a grocer located in the Gallowgate, who appears to have been one of those leading the protests, but Ogston now changed tack and withdrew the interdict.  In any case the protesters appeared to have established a good case that a right of way had existed over Alexander’s Court for at least the previous 40 years.

The new tactic by Ogstons, actually a very old tactic, was to offer money for compliance, on the basis that everyone has his price.  Their revised proposal was to shut Alexander’s Court, not in its entirety but partially from the Loch Street end to a point 212ft distant.  C&PH Chalmers put the proposal to the Town Council in the names of A Ogston & Sons, AM Ogston, J Ogston and draper Mr John Alexander, the owners of the court and pointing out that it was within the Council’s power to act, the alleyway being less than 12ft wide and suitable only for foot traffic.  At its mostconstricted it was very narrow, only 3ft 3in wide.  Ogstons offered £100 for the right of servitude the protesters alleged they would lose over the closed portion of the court.  The new proposal was considered by the Council in mid-December 1872.  The reason given by Ogstons for the proposal was that it would allow them to make alterations to their manufactory which would make their operations more acceptable to the general public than had apparently been the case hitherto.  Two petitions were also tabled at the Council meeting, one from 66 persons objecting to the closure.  However, Ogstons had organised their supporters by this date and the contrary position was taken by 185 persons.  The Council resolved to agree the closure and, of course, to accept the £100 (about £12,000 in 2021 money), to be used for improving access on other routes in the neighbourhood.

Though this long-running dispute had at last been resolved, the year 1872 brought further local difficulties for Ogstons.  The Sewerage Committee of the Town Council received a report that the main sewer in Loch Street had become blocked and that on clearing it out, it was found that the cause was discharged material from the Soap and Candle Works.  A bill for clearance was sent to Ogstons.  Early the following year another petition was submitted to the Town Council from 20 residents of the Loch Street area again complaining about the offensive odours emanating from Ogstons’ Works.  The complaint was forwarded to the Public Health sub-committee for consideration, which it did a month later.  By the time of the meeting, support for the complaint had grown to 317 local residents, all of whom had signed a memorandum.  The objectors had, rather unrealistically, demanded the removal of the works from that location.  The sub-committee made a site visit before making a response.  At Loch Street “they found that the large number of workmen employed at the works enjoyed good health; the result of their own visit was not unsatisfactory and beyond suggesting one or two improvements which Messrs Ogston promised to attend to, the sub-Committee could not recommend the Local Authority to interfere further in this matter”.  It was later confirmed by Dr Littlejohn of Edinburgh that Ogstons had carried out the agreed improvements satisfactorily.  The smells had been minimised and there had been no recent complaints.

 

A Ogston & Sons’ business grows

From the year 1874, it was clear that A Ogston & Sons was importing an increased quantity of raw materials for soap and candle manufacture by sea from continental Europe.  Between this year and the end of 1877, the following totals were detected, 13cwt + 32 cases paraffin, 87 casks of potash, 25 casks of silicate of soda and 8,575 bundles of hoops, presumably for the manufacture of barrels in Ogstons’ cooperage.  Another interesting statistic, bearing upon the scale of the Soap and Candle Works operations, was the purchase of 22 tons 2cwt of tallow from Mr Murray’s market in Banff in a single week late in 1876 and in 1879 tallow was imported from New York and a substantial consignment of rosin from Savannah.  At some point in the, then, recent past, the firm had also imported potash from Canada.

This growing dependence on sea transport caused A Ogston & Sons to write to the Aberdeen Harbour Board in 1885 pointing out that the dues charged locally on materials imported and exported were substantial and put Ogstons at a competitive disadvantage with manufacturers located further south.  They had to compete with producers who were more favourably situated with respect to transport costs.  The letter instanced paraffin, scale and palm oil, the dues on which were 2/- per ton.  When manufactured into candles and again shipped, as a considerable proportion of them were, 2/- per ton outwards had again to be paid and being charged on the gross the cost for dues alone both inwards and outwards amounted to 3d per cwt in the manufactured article.  Tallow, rosin and oils (such as cotton and linseed) were subject to the same rate of dues and also soaps which they had to deliver in the south markets where competition was so strong that they were almost run out of the market and 3d per cwt was often the limit of the profit they could realise.  But it appeared that the Harbour Board was immovable. 

The year 1877 saw further plans for the expansion of the Soap and Candle Works.  Planning permission was granted for a new warehouse, tallow house and packing room on the part of the site adjacent to the Innes Street junction with Loch Street.  The architectural practice responsible was William Henderson & Son.  Further proposals to make alterations to the Works were sent to the Town Council in 1883 but the local authority deemed them to be outwith the need for planning approval, since no expansion of the works was involved.

Eighteen eighty-six provided a good illustration of the way in which the relationship between the Town Council and A Ogston & Sons had matured.  The location of the Soap and Candle Works, together with the nature of its business and the ambition of its owners, adjacent to domestic housing led to periodic complaints concerning smell and access.  The Council found itself “piggy in the middle” between the populace whose concerns they had to handle and a major firm with a substantial impact on employment and the economy of the area.  The Town Council’s Streets and Roads Committee proposed to construct a new road between Gallowgate and Loch Street on the line of Livingstone Court.  However, Ogstons had their own plans for the further development of their site, which included building over a portion of this Council-proposed access route.  The Town Council wisely sought to find an accommodation with the firm by sending the Lord Provost “to wait upon Mr Ogston (Alexander Milne Ogston) to see if a way can be found to keep the Town’s plan viable”.  AM Ogston (1836) wisely accepted this olive branch and agreed to give up the firm’s right to build over part of Livingstone Court, so as not to compromise the Town’s scheme if, in return, the Council would pay for the construction of the gable end of the relocated building at a cost of £60 (about £8,300 in 2021 money).  The Council readily assented to this quid pro quo and both sides emerged from a potentially confrontational situation having achieved a win-win outcome.  Ogstons were praised for approaching the problem in a liberal spirit and they also gifted the solum of the ground required by the Council for their new road.

In 1891, A Ogston & Sons proposed yet further expansion and modification to their works on the Gallowgate side.  The Public Health Committee of the Town Council examined the proposal and quickly gave their approval, conditional on the business "being conducted so as not to be injurious to health".  The new development involved the demolition of numbers 123 to 135 Gallowgate and their replacement with a new structure to be used as casemekers' shops and wood stores.  A further proposal by Ogstons was made two years later and it too received a rapid sign-off from the Council.  As if to emphasise the almost continuous nature of the development of the Loch Street site, in 1895 Ogstons proposed the construction of a chimney stack and also further reconstruction of existing buildings to be used partly as carpenters' and blacksmiths' shops, partly as stores, partly for the cutting and stamping of soap and finally a small portion to be occupied as a bothy.

Accidents at A Ogston & Sons’ works

Given the growing scale of the operations of A Ogton & Sons, it was inevitable that an increase in industrial accidents would be a consquence.  In 1876 a horse-drawn lorry was standing in the Soap and Candle works with a load on empty firkins when some fell off, panicking the horses and knocking down the two men in charge, both of whom were injured, one seriously.  A gale in 1887 dislodged some iron sheets from the works and they struck a passing girl who was “seriously” injured and taken home in a cab. Accidents also happened from time to time as a result of the inappropriate use of machinery.  In 1887, a boy worker tampered with a cutting machine in the tinsmith department and had the fingers of one hand almost severed.  On admission to the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, it was found that the fingers were so badly damaged that they had to be amputated.  A similar incident occurred a few months later when another boy lost two fingers in a die-cutting machine.  An even more serious accident occurred in 1890 when a blacksmith fitting gas piping stepped back to look at his work and fell 24 ft down a lift shaft, sustaining a compound fracture of the skull.  He died in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary a week later.  Three years on, a similar accident occurred to a young employee, Andrew Frost aged 15, who stepped back into a tank of boiling water and was badly scalded on the legs.

 

Advertising by A Ogston & Sons

Following the success of the Great Exhibition of 1851, international displays of manufactures became popular in all industrial nations.  Participation was deemed an effective way to bring a firm’s products to the notice of the consuming public.  In 1886, such an exhibition was held in the Scottish capital, the Edinburgh International Industrial Exhibition.  It was opened by Prince Albert Victor, the eldest son of the Prince (later Edward VII) and Princess of Wales.  A Ogston & Sons was one of the exhibitors and the most prominent feature of the firm’s display was “a colossal obelisk of soap surrounded by a very large collection of small pieces of the same material, illustrative of all the varieties manufactured in the works as well as by numerous specimens of candles from the plain to the coloured and decorated lights of the most artistic moulds”.  A jury awarded prizes to exhibitors and Ogstons received a gold medal and a diploma for soap and candles.  That Ogstons had chosen to be represented at such a gathering illustrates well the scale of their ambition at that time.  Subsequently, Ogstons were represented at other similar exhibitions, for example at Newcastle in 1887 and at Glasgow the following year.  On this latter occasion, Ogstons exhibited a machine for plaiting candle wicks based on a new principle of operation.

During the period when they held an agency agreement (1845 – 1861) with Price for the sale of the London firm’s candles, Ogstons often placed advertisements in the local papers and these inserts always emphasised the enterprise’s link to this leading candle manufacturer.  Subsequently, Ogstons, being a wholesaler, seemed to leave advertising to the initiative of their retail suppliers.  For example, in 1866, Hutcheon’s Light Stores, Turriff, advertised “Young’s Patent Paraffin 3/6 per gal.  Miller’s Naphtha 2/6 per gal.  London Pale Seal Oil 4/8 per gal.  Ogston’s Composite Candles, fine 0/8 per lb.  Ogston’s Composite Candles, crown 0/9 per lb” in the Banffshire Journal.  This situation continued until about 1888 when Ogstons started to identify their products with brand names and, in addition to the advertisements by their retailers, launched major advertising campaigns of their own.  The first brand name that they used was “Balmoral”, thus creating an unofficial link to the Royal family, though they did not hold a Royal warrant for the supply of soap.  “Balmoral Paraffin Soap is the latest laundry surprise. Is a speedy and effectual washer.  Is non-injurious to clothes or skin.  It leaves no smell after washing.  Is an economical soap to use.  Manufactured by Alex Ogston & Sons, Aberdeen”.  This advertisement appeared in all the local Aberdeen newspapers in the summer of 1888.  Other advertisements started to emphasise the status of the manufacturer, “Each bar bears the stamp of the well-known soap manufacturers, Alex Ogston & Sons, Aberdeen whose brand on any soap is a guarantee of its genuineness.  All inferior makes should be avoided”.  By the following year, 1889, searches for the word “Ogston” in newspapers published in the North-East were dominated by insertions extolling the virtues of Ogstons’ soaps, such was the impact of the change in advertising policy.  These themes of emphasising brand names and the status of the manufacturer continued.  The following example was from 1889.  "Ogston's Prize Medal Finest Pale, Crown Pale and XX Pale Soaps in 4b and 4 1/2 lb bars.  Are unadulterated.  The maker's name is stamped on each bar for the public protection,  Ogston's finest soft soap is absolutely free from smell.  Every cask or tin that bears Ogston's name is genuine and full weight.  Ask your grocer for Ogston's and take nothing else".  

Local competition for soap and candles - consolidation

One of the stimulants of this move into advertising by A Ogston & Sons was undoubtedly competition locally from other manufacturers.  As has been shown above, in the second half of the 18^th century soap and candle manufacture in Aberdeen was characterised by the existence of a shifting population of small producers, individual members of which seldom survived for more than a few years.  The situation changed around the turn of the century when some manufacturers appeared, other than Ogstons, which had greater staying power.  Copland & Milne produced candles and soap between1799 and 1827, John Bothwell, followed by his son George, was a candle manufacturer between 1798 and 1857, PA Skinner produced candles from 1824 to 1866, William Borthwick made candles from 1822 to 1839, Alex Mears was a more transient soap producer from 1817 to 1825, similarly with Robert Shinnie whose soap was sold between 1799 and 1810.  However, after the demise of PA Skinner in 1866, Ogstons only had two significant local competitors, the Lilybank Soap Company which started producing both soap and candles in 1884 and Williamson & Middleton (succeeded by Williamson & Simpson) who manufactured only candles from 1834 to 1866 and then both soap and candles from 1867 to 1902.  In effect, the scale and efficiency of the Loch Street Soap and Candle Works saw off all local competitors apart from these last two rival firms and Ogstons (which was transformed into Ogston & Tennant Ltd in 1898) found a method to eliminate the last of the local Aberdeen competition.

The Lilybank Soap Company was incorporated in 1884 with a capital of £30,000.  Its objective was to carry out the manufacture and sale of soap, candles and margarine and the buying and selling of oil and tallow and other kindred commodities but with an initial concentration on soap manufacture.  The company said of itself “The trade is in few hands and is known to have yielded good returns to those having at their command ample capital and efficient management”.  To which Aberdeen soap manufacturer could those in the new company have been referring?  The name of the new company was derived from a site at Kittybrewster station called “Lilybank”.  A licence for manufacture was granted in July 1884, subject to regulations based on those imposed “in other places” and by January 1886 its new, commodious premises had been completed.  In 1886, the first year of production, the company made a small profit of £103, declining to a loss of £250 in the following year, though an air of desperation was evident when the board appealed to shareholders not to buy their groceries from agents who did not stock Lilybank soap.  The company’s soap was heavily advertised in the local press, with Ogstons retaliating in kind.  Eighteen eighty-eight saw a profit of £380, even after paying down some debt and it appeared that this neophyte had at last overcome the teething troubles that can afflict any emerging firm.  A new chimney stack and boiler house were added to the premises but at the end of the fifth year of its existence the company’s debt had started to mount, no dividend was declared, and the share price fell.  A rumour then appeared in the press alleging that Lilybank was to be amalgamated with a company from the South.  This caused Alexander Milne Ogston to contact Mr Esslemont MP, the chairman of Lilybank, to ask if the company was for sale.  He must have received a positive response because Ogstons then offered a cash price of £9088 (about £1.25 million in 2021) to buy the ground, buildings, machinery and plant, and office furniture of their competitor in Kittybrewster.  The directors met to review the offer, considered it fair and recommended acceptance at a meeting of shareholders.  The sale was agreed.  The Lilybank Soap Company Ltd had existed for little more than six years before being swallowed by its larger neighbour.

The firm of Williamson & Middleton started making tallow candles under the partnership of James Williamson and James Middleton at premises in Wales Street, Aberdeen in 1826.  At the time, James Williamson, who had been a flesher (butcher) was 41 and his partner was four years his junior.  A year later, they took on an additional partner, William Reid, who was also a flesher. The firm was successful and continued in business, regularly exporting candles to Halifax, Nova Scotia, until 1848 when it was dissolved by mutual consent, apparently due to the advancing years of the partners, both retiring from the chandlery business.  James Williamson died a year later.  Technically, the firm of Williamson and Middleton ceased to exist but practically it continued, occupying the same premises but under a new partnership of William, the youngest son of James Williamson, and John Simpson.  The new firm was called Williamson & Simpson.  In 1867, the scope of the firm’s business expanded to include soap-making and dealing in oil.  The success of this new partnership can be judged by its longevity and the ability of William Williamson to buy new homes, the first in Golden Square in 1869 and another, in Bon-Accord Square in 1876, the Golden Square property then being occupied by one of his unmarried sisters.  John Simpson was born in 1809 in Stonehaven and at the 1861 Census he was described as a tallow chandler employing four men.  There was a further change in personnel in 1888 when a new partner, “J Williamson”, entered the firm and a year later William Williamson left the business.  The relationship between the two Williamsons has not been uncovered.  The Aberdeen Royal Infirmary contracted for soap annually through a bidding process but almost always awarded the contract for supply jointly to Ogston & Tennant and Williamson & Simpson.   In 1901, the Ogstons (now in the form of limited liability company, Ogston & Tennant Limited) made an offer to buy the “old-established” firm of Williamson & Simpson.  The offer was accepted, the business of Williamson & Simpson was merged with that of Ogston & Tennant and the final source of local competition in soap and candle manufacture in the North-East was eliminated.

Soap and candle manufacturing was going through the classical, evolutionary process of consolidation as an industry matures, so as to control costs, gain efficiencies through manufacturing scale and eliminate wasteful competition.  In the North-East of Scotland, small producers had progressively fallen by the wayside and those remaining had been removed by takeover.  The next stage of the process was the collaboration of producers over a wider geographical area.  To this end, a merger was negotiated between A Ogston & Sons in the North-East and Charles Tennant and Company Limited of St Rollox, the leading soap manufacturer in the west of Scotland from where they supplied much of the country.  Charles Tennant (1768 – 1838), the founder of the firm, was the son of an Ayrshire farmer and became a weaver.  In the late 18^th century, cloth was bleached by exposing it to sunlight for many months in bleachfields and Charles Tennant sought to find a method which would shorten this tardy process.  His research led to the invention of bleaching powder (calcium hydroxide) for which Charles was awarded a patent.  Charles Tennant was the founder of Charles Tennant & Co in 1792 and the developer of the extensive chemical works at St Rollox, Glasgow.  There he introduced the manufacture of many industrial chemicals, including, sodium hydroxide, sodium sulphate, sulphuric and other acids.  By the time of his death in 1838, St Rollox was the largest chemical works in the world, covering about 100 acres.  His eldest son, John Tennant (1797 – 1878) then became managing director of the works for the next 40 years.  Soap manufacture was introduced as a way of utilising the alkali being produced at the works and the advertising techniques employed by Tennants in the West of Scotland were very similar to those used by Ogstons in the North-East, with constant repetition of simple messages relating to products such as “Tennant’s “Special Pure” soap in bars and blocks”.  In modern terms, it was a case of “Tell them.  Tell them you told them.  And when you have told them, tell them again”.  These two firms could have continued to battle for increased shares of the soap market but instead they chose to collaborate.

Charles Tennant

St Rollox Chemical Works 1831

Ogstons merges with Tennants’ soap interests

Charles Clow Tennant (1823 – 1906), later Sir Charles, 1^st Bt, succeeded John Tennant (1797) at the St Rollox Chemical Works and it was during his time in charge that a merger of the soap manufacturing businesses of Tennants and Ogstons was negotiated.  The announcement of the merger was rumoured in October 1898 but not announced until the following month, in the Daily Record on 1 November 1898.  “Charles Tennant & Co circular.  St Rollox, Glasgow 31^st Oct 1898.  Dear Sirs we beg to advise that we have arranged to amalgamate our business of soap manufacturers with that old-established firm of Messrs Alexander Ogston & Sons, Aberdeen.  The united business will be conducted under the style of Ogston & Tennant Ltd with factories in Aberdeen and Glasgow.  In thus amalgamating, numerous economies will be effected which will permit of goods of the highest standard of quality being offered to you at minimum prices.  PS Our chemical and merchant businesses we shall continue as hitherto under the old name of Charles Tennant & Co with offices at Victoria Chambers, no 142 West Nile Street, Glasgow, also at Belfast, Dublin, Dundee, and elsewhere”.  The subscribers to the new limited liability company comprised leading members of the Ogston and Tennant families.  AM Ogston of Ardoe soap manufacturer, Aberdeen; FJ Tennant of Hyndford House, North Berwick, soap manufacturer; HJ Tennant soap manufacturer, London; James Ogston soap manufacturer Aberdeen; Thomas Alexander soap manufacturer, Stirling; AG Ogston (eldest son of AM Ogston) soap manufacturer, Aberdeen; W Alexander soap manufacturer, Stirling.  Sir Charles Tennant was not among the initial investors in the new entity.  The proposed capital of the new limited liability company, Ogston & Tennant Ltd, was £300,000, divided into 20,000 preference and 10,000 ordinary shares of £10 each.

Advertisement for Ogston & Tennant Soaps

Women wrapping soap bars, Soap and Candle Works

Thus, A Ogston & Sons had existed for almost 30 years, effectively from the death of Alexander Ogston (1799) in 1869 to the merger with Tennants in 1898.  During that time the soap and candle making businesses had thrived, the firm had expanded enormously and the principals, Alexander Milne Ogston (1836) and his younger brother, James Ogston (1845) had grown personally wealthy, and this was publicly displayed by their acquisition of grand new homes.  Increasingly, they were able to develop other interests outside the firm’s business sphere, as competent managers were hired and put in daily charge of operations at Loch Street.

 

The Ardoe estate’s growth and reconstruction

The Ardoe estate, in the parish of Banchory-Devenick on Lower Deeside, had been acquired by Alexander Ogston (1766) in 1838 shortly before his death.  It then passed to his son, also Alexander (1799), who sold the “shady” part of the estate called Cotbank in 1853.  Alexander Milne Ogston bought Ardoe for about £19,000 (about £2.4 million in 2021) from his father’s trustees in 1870 and in 1873 he bought back Cotbank.  AM Ogston (1836) further added to his land holdings by acquiring the contiguous Heathcot estate in 1880 and the smaller, also contiguous, estate of Shannaburn.  The Ardoe estate of about 910 acres had a mansion house from the time of acquisition of Ardoe by Alexander Ogston (1766) but little has been discovered about its size or grandeur.  Perhaps the house was insufficiently impressive for a man of Alexander Milne Ogston’s growing means and status, because in about 1877 he commissioned the prominent Aberdeen architect James Matthews (1819 – 1898) to create a grand new mansion in the Scots Baronial style.  The interior design of the building was delegated to James Matthews’ partner, Alexander Marshall McKenzie and this grand edifice, constructed of dressed white granite (like Balmoral Castle) was completed in 1878.  During the build phase of the new mansion, AM Ogston lived at Cotbank Cottage and his son, Charles was born there.  This temporary home was put up for let in 1879.  The stop-gap flit to Cotbank suggests that the old mansion house was pulled down in order to reuse the same site for the new structure.  Reference to the OS 6in maps of 1865 and 1899 confirms this was the case, the new house occupying the same position but covering a substantially greater ground area.  Another obvious difference between the maps showing the layout of Ardoe before and after the new house was built is the great increase in the area of landscaping, especially on the east and north of the property.  It was reported that between 1875 and 1885, AM Ogston planted 30 acres with trees at Ardoe.  He was also a member of the Aberdeen Horticultural Society.  John Michie, Queen Victoria’s head forester at Balmoral visited AM Ogston by invitation in March 1891 and described the landscaping in his diary.  “Slept last night at Mr Johnston's Culter Paper Works and in company with Mr Richd. Grove visited Ardoe and found Mr A M Ogston waiting.  We left the house and walked through park or Policy grounds extending to a good many acres - perhaps 50 acres - which was laid out by Walker & Beattie, Surveyor, Aberdeen somewhere about 12 years ago.  The planning and laying-out is done much after the Public Park order.  There are clumps of deciduous trees planted close up with Scots pine, as nurses and belts of a similar nature which are too narrow.  Narrow belts should not be planted and before they were here at all there should have been a larger sweep of ground devoted to the "Park" to admit of the belts being no narrower than 30 yards without interfering with a due proportion and expanse of grass”.  Michie made several recommendations to AM Ogston to improve the appearance of his landscaped grounds.

Ardoe House

Ardoe House 1865

Ardoe House 1899

 

One reason for Alexander Milne Ogston acquiring the additional estates adjacent to Ardoe may have been to furnish each of his three sons with a landed property after his own demise.  In his will he left Ardoe to his eldest son, Alexander Gordon Ogston (1875 – 1943), Cotbank and Shannaburn to his middle son, Charles Ogston (1877 – 1944) and Heathcot to the youngest boy, James Norman Ogston (1881 – 1972).  Ardoe remained in the hands of the Ogston family until 1945.

Ardoe, Heathpark, Shannaburn and Heathcot

In 1893, Alexander Milne Ogston gave evidence to the Labour Commission on the condition of agricultural labourers in Scotland.  Although his opinions on the labouring classes may have been rose-tinted, at least they give a good indication of the nature of agricultural activities on the Ardoe estate at the time.  "AM Ogston stated that in this district the farms run from 70 to 100 acres, the relations between men and masters are very good and dairying prevails very extensively.  Farmers sell their potato crops at an early stage to merchants who bring their labourers, both men and women, out of Aberdeen on carts and take them back at night.  Consequently, cottages are not much required.  He stated that the servants are "a very contented lot", that there are no crofts and that "no one desires them".  First class men get £32 in money with board and lodging, second class £24 to £26.  On dairy farms women are largely employed, often relatives, daughters &c of the house and when hired get £16 to £20.  He stressed the importance of dairy workers being "clean and careful".  "They are well looked after by their mistresses and are a very respectable class"".

The Ardoe and Cotbank estates had some 300 acres of wood and rough ground which could be used for the sport of shooting, though it had not regularly been shot over prior to AM Ogston’s accession.  He did not rent out his rough shootings but enjoyed his sport on home territory. Shooting on his 600 acres of agricultural land was let to the tenants.  Probably of more importance were the fishing rights which attached to his estates on the south bank of the river Dee, one of the most noteworthy salmon rivers in Scotland.  However, in 1892, a dispute concerning fishing rights arose with his prominent, landed neighbour, David Stewart (1835) of Banchory House, an industrialist who had become wealthy through the manufacture of combs and who, at the time, was Lord Provost of Aberdeen.  He was knighted for his civic service in 1896.  The dispute concerned the boundary between the fishing rights of the adjacent proprietors, but the disagreement could not be resolved informally, so AM Ogston pursued his neighbour through the courts.  The action was initially settled in favour of the Ardoe laird, but David Stewart was dissatisfied and appealed the decision.  The verdict was overturned on the grounds that the pursuer had failed to prove that he and his predecessor had had exclusive possession for 20 years.  Two years later the revised decision was referred to the House of Lords and AM Ogston won at this final appeal.  There appeared to be no lasting froideur between the two neighbours.

David Stewart of Banchory-Devenick

 

Life on Lower Deeside for the laird of Ardoe

Taking on the role of a landed proprietor brought with it certain obligations and expectations on behalf of the employees and tenants of the estate, the parish church, the local school and the general conduct of local society at all levels.  Alexander Milne Ogston now had both the time and the means to fulfil these obligations and, it would be fair to say, he met the expectations which had been placed upon him when he became the laird of Ardoe. The parish school at Banchory-Devenick became a long-term interest of the Ardoe laird.  He was first elected to the local school board in 1873 and he served continuously until his death in 1926 and from 1876 as chairman.  School Board elections took place every three years but in this parish, matters were usually arranged so that the number of candidates was the same as the number of seats, obviating the need for a formal election.  In truth, no one would have dared to offer him or herself for the role of chairman in opposition to the Ardoe laird.  The parish extended to the Kincardineshire coast and initially the school board had four establishments under its control, at Portlethen, Findon, Banchory-Devenick and, from 1884, Cults.  Business was usually routine and intra-board relationships harmonious but in 1888 a spat arose over the role played by board member, John Joyner of Cults.  To clear the air and to clear his name, he wrote to the editor of the Aberdeen Free Press.  “In reference to the meeting yesterday of our school board, Rev Mr Still is reported as saying I had no right to send in a minute of the meeting held in the school at Banchory-Devenick and that my doing so was an insult to the Board.  The minute was written by me at the request of Mr A Ogston chairman of the meeting and handed over to him so that I neither insulted the Board nor constituted myself clerk of the meeting”.  That was the end of the matter.  The Rev. Still had learned the hard way, as may do, that it is always important to establish the facts before jumping to conclusions.  Treats for the parish school children were usually arranged in the summer, often in the form of a picnic in the grounds of Ardoe House.  A special treat was organised at the end of June 1902 on the occasion of the coronation of King Edward VII, when the Portlethen school children were transported to Ardoe to join their fellows from Banchory-Devenick.  "The children attending the Portlethen Public School met in the school Saturday forenoon, as previously arranged, where they were all decorated with sashes by the teachers.  A large number of gaily adorned horses and carts were in waiting, and drove the children, along with their teachers, to Ardoe, where along with the scholars of Banchory-Devenick they were entertained to a splendid picnic by Mr Ogston.  All sorts of amusements were provided for the children and before leaving for home they were presented with Coronation medals.  A very hearty vote of thanks was given to Mr Ogston for his kindness.  The children returned home highly delighted with their afternoon's enjoyment".  Another lavish entertainment was mounted in 1911 after the coronation of King George V.  On this occasion AM Ogston was unavailable but his brother, James Ogston substituted for him.  A china coronation mug was presented to each pupil.  Earlier, a more serious gift to the school children from the Ardoe laird was made in late 1910 at Portlethen School, when each child received a toothbrush and a box of tooth powder.  During almost the whole time that AM Ogston was a member of the Banchory-Devenick School Board, Mr RH Dean had served the parish in a teaching capacity, firstly at Findon for 20 years, then at Banchory-Decenick for 23 years.  At his send-off, he remarked that in all the time he had known Alexander Milne Ogston there had never been any friction.  Possibly the last act of generosity by the Ardoe laird to the school children of the parish was at Christmas 1925.  “The children attending Banchory- Devenick Parish Church Sunday School were given their annual treat by Mr A. M. Ogston Ardoe. After tea, a long programme of games, songs, recitations, and dancing was gone through. On the arrival of Santa Claus, a heavily laden tree was dismantled, each child receiving a gift, a bag of sweets, an apple, and an orange. There was a large gathering, including Mrs Norman (AM Ogston’s eldest daughter) and Miss Norman, Ardoe; Mrs Eadie, Cults; and Miss K. Henderson, Woodside, who assisted in entertaining the children. The Rev. Mr Mackenzie, the minister, called for cheers for Mr Ogston; Mrs Mackenzie, the Manse; and the ladies of the choir”.  This occasion was an entirely appropriate swansong for Alexander Milne Ogston, though sadly for both him and the parishioners, he was unable to be present.

Other, less formal activities took place in the local community around Ardoe which required the involvement or participation of the local laird, if he was to maintain his standing.  Donation of prize money to local ploughing matches, attendance at and participation in flower and poultry shows, making an appearance at Highland games in the vicinity, opening local charitable bazaars and new facilities such as village halls were all events of the local social calendar where participation was almost obligatory.  On a more sombre note, failure to attend, or at least be represented, at funerals of prominent farmers, especially tenants, would have raised eyebrows.

 

Maryculter Bridge

Alexander Milne Ogston, as expected, also took the lead when new local infrastructure was needed.  A noted example occurred in 1912, when it was decided to build a new public hall for the parish of Banchory-Devenick.  He gifted the site and also paid for construction, which was of corrugated iron lined with wood and also funded the furnishing, including provision of a piano.  A celebratory concert was held there in mid-December, with the laird of Ardoe presiding and the Ogston and Tennant male voice choir performing.  A similar initiative was taken by Alexander Milne Ogston when the Lower Deeside community sought the construction of a new bridge for wheeled traffic at Maryculter, to allow easier communication between the north and south banks of the Dee.  A public meeting was held in May 1893 to discuss the desirability for such a development and the means by which it might be funded.  AM Ogston was called to the chair.  The idea of a new bridge, which was estimated to cost about £3,500, met with general approval but where exactly should it be located?  AM Ogston’s suggestion was for the new structure to be placed at Murtle, which would be convenient for Ardoe, but he gave up his preference in favour of the majority who wanted Maryculter to host the new construction.  A committee was appointed to steer delivery of the new bridge project and AM Ogston became its chairman.  By September 1893 between £1,200 and £1,300, of which AM Ogston had contributed £250, had been raised but finding the whole sum proved to be a continuing struggle.  Kincardine County Council provided £500 but Aberdeen Town Council declined to contribute, though Aberdeen County Council made a gesture.  By early 1894 details of the proposed bridge design and access were being examined by the committee, but the cost had risen substantially from the initial estimate to £5,400.  Construction went ahead and the structure was completed in late summer 1895.  It was opened by AM Ogston’s wife, Katherine, in early September, with the inevitable words, “I have much pleasure in declaring this bridge open”.  The final cost was £5,600 (about £778,000 in 2021 money), more than had been raised to fund the project, so supplementary arm-twisting went on for some time, most of the present funders agreeing to add in an extra sum.  One exception was AM Ogston himself, who declined on the grounds that he had already paid over a considerable donation.  Even at the beginning of 1898 a debt of £740 was still outstanding, though it was eventually cleared.  In his sermon on the first Sunday after the burial of the laird of Ardoe in May 1926, the minister, Rev Alexander Mackenzie referred to Alexander M Ogston’s notion of generosity coupled with fairness.  “When financial help was required, that help was forthcoming as soon as he had satisfied himself that the congregation had done its little bit”.  In 1924, the Morrison suspension bridge for pedestrians (known locally as the “Shakkin Briggie”, which linked the north and south bank communities across the Dee at the Cults – Ardoe level, was damaged by floods.  AM Ogston, with his usual munificence, donated £50 towards its repair.

Banchory-Devenick village hall

 Maryculter Bridge 1895

The politics of AM Ogston (1836)

The political views of Alexander Milne Ogston became clear about 1872 when he attended an election meeting in support of General Sir George Balfour who represented Kincardineshire in the House of Commons from that year until 1892 as a member of the Liberal Party.  In those days it was quite usual for industrialists to support that party.  The Conservative Party, at that time, was still the supporter of the privileges of the large landowners and an opponent of free trade.  AM Ogston’s party allegiance remained the same until 1886 when the policies of the Liberals on home rule for Ireland led to the breakaway of a faction opposed to home rule to form the Liberal Unionist party.  AM Ogston was a member of that faction.  In January 1889, there was a meeting of Conservatives and Unionists in Stonehaven with AM Ogston presiding to discuss the selection of a candidate at the forthcoming general election who could attract the support of both Conservatives and Unionists and two months later the Stonehaven Conservative Club announced that "the most prominent Liberal Unionist in the county, Mr Ogston of Ardoe, had heartily agreed to become a member of the club".  The laird of Ardoe continued to attend both Conservative and Unionist events.  Subsequently, the Liberal Unionists and the Conservatives collaborated in a coalition government lasting from 1895 to 1905.  In 1912 the two parties, which had remained as separate entities while in coalition, formally merged to form the Conservative and Unionist Party.

 

AM Ogston (1836)’s public life in Aberdeen

By the 1890s, Alexander Milne Ogston had become so prominent in the public life of Aberdeen and its surrounding area that he was routinely invited to attend the significant life events of the great and the good of the North-East of Scotland.  As a result, he was present at a lot of marriages but, even more prominently, he was an attendee at many funerals of lawyers, landowners, Army officers and politicians, too many to tabulate.  Just one example of each will be given.  In August 1891, AM Ogston was a pallbearer at the funeral of John Willet CE, a prominent civil engineer and bridge designed, who had been a friend of the laird of Ardoe all his adult life and who was a witness at Ogston’s marriage in 1872.  John Willet was buried at Allenvale Cemetery, then on the western outskirts of the city, which many prominent citizens of that era chose as their last resting place.  In 1909, AM Ogston and his wife were guests at the wedding of Miss Muriel Baird, daughter of Sir Alexander Baird of Urie, Stonehaven.  Sir Alexander was Lord Lieutenant of Kincardineshire from 1889 to 1918.  As with weddings, funerals and other public occasions involving distinguished citizens, Alexander Milne Ogston also attended and possibly felt obliged to be present at, many prominent social occasions, such as balls (Aberdeen University, Aberdeen Bachelors’, Aberdeen Benedicts’, Aberdeen Artists’ Society,), “At Homes”, garden parties, Highland gatherings, ship launches and concerts.  The Ogstons, being the owners of a grand house with extensive landscaped garden, also threw their own social events.  The British Association for the Advancement of Science was holding its annual meeting in mid-September in 1885 at Aberdeen and AM Ogston was appointed a member of the Local Executive Committee.  This was a good opportunity for him to show off his house and gardens at Ardoe and 300 invitees attending the BAAS meeting and prominent citizens of the town attended the Ardoe garden party.  Guests included his distinguished relatives, Professor Alexander and Mrs Ogston, Mr and Mrs James Ogston, Dr Frank Ogston and Professor Francis Ogston.

 

AM Ogston (1836) and the theatre

The theatre was a passion of Alexander Milne Ogston, so it is perhaps not surprising that he was one of the prime movers behind a scheme to build a new venue in Aberdeen.  In 1868 he was a member of the provisional committee promoting a new theatre.  Four years later the prospectus was published for the Aberdeen Theatre and Opera House Company Limited and the new structure, situated in Guild Street was inaugurated.  The company had a capital of £8,000, divided into shares of £1 each.  The building was designed by the prominent Aberdeen architect, James Matthews, with the cooperation of Charles Phipps of London, presumably because Matthews, though he had designed many grand buildings, had never been involved with such a specialised project before.  Charles J Phipps had designed numerous theatres in London and elsewhere.  Alexander Milne Ogston became the chairman of the company owning the venue, which was named Her Majesty’s Theatre, and by 1879 it was turning a small profit, even paying a 5% dividend on capital in 1883.  He continued in this leading role until 1897, when at an EGM, it was resolved to sell the building for £7,500 (about £1.06 million in 2021 money).  Robert Arthur had started his own group of theatres, mainly in England, during the 1880s.  A new company was formed, the Robert Arthur Theatre Company Limited, to acquire the Royal Court, Liverpool, Her Majesty's, Dundee, the Theatre Royal, Newcastle, Her Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen and the Theatre Royal, Nottingham.  Alexander Milne Ogston became a director of this new corporate entity. The company felt that Her Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen was not of sufficient size for its catchment, so a new site was sought in the city for a larger, replacement building.  A suitable site was acquired from Aberdeen Town Council at Rosemount Viaduct.  AM Ogston, by that time a deputy lieutenant of the county, led the delegation to the Council.  Construction started in 1904 and the new building, named His Majesty’s Theatre, was opened two years later.  Sadly, the Robert Arthur Company ran out of money in 1912 and the Chancery Division of the High Court issued an order for the holding of a meeting between the company and its creditors, with AM Ogston being named by the Court as an alternate chairman of that meeting.  The Robert Arthur theatres were taken over by Howard & Wyndham Limited, the largest theatre owner in Britain.  This resulted in the programme of events at His Majesty’s Theatre Aberdeen taking a more low-brow direction, with the introduction of a Vaudeville season during the summer (Vaudeville was an American style of show involving comedy, song and dance), with reduced prices, two performances per night and smoking in the auditorium.  This attempt to satisfy popular tastes did not meet with universal approval in the Granite City, partly because the then current licensing of the theatre restricted it to plays charging not less than 6d for admission.  There was also a snobbery element at play.  Much hostility was expressed in meetings of the Town Council and the former Lord Provost, Sir Alexander Lyon, threatened to seek an interdict on behalf of debenture holders who did not want to see the tone of entertainment at the theatre lowered.  A meeting was arranged between AM Ogston and Sir Alexander, after which the laird of Ardoe admitted that he had not appreciated the strength of feeling against the proposal.  Alexander Milne Ogston continued his association with Aberdeen’s premier theatre for the rest of his life.  When Mr Adair Nelson retired as manager of the theatre in 1923, allusion was made to the pioneering role that Ogston (who was present) had played in the development of Aberdeen’s theatres, “who, through much tribulation —(laughter)—had got erected the building of which they were all proud. (Applause.)''.

Tivoli Theatre (formerly Her Majesty's Theatre)

His Majesty's Theatre

 

AM Ogston (1836) and horse racing

Another passion of AM Ogston was horse racing.  Between 1876 and 1889 there was an annual meeting on Aberdeen Links with the laird of Ardoe acting as a steward throughout the period.  The race meeting was accompanied by a number of social events, including a dinner and a ball, which he and his wife usually attended.  However, the popularity of this sport of the wealthy never really gained traction in Aberdeen and after 1889 the meeting lapsed until 1910 when an attempt was made to revive the event.  AM Ogston was again a steward, but the revival was short lived and quickly petered out.

 

AM Ogston (1836) and Banchory-Devenick parish church      

The parish church at Banchory-Devenick was another local institution with which AM Ogston was deeply associated, indeed formally involved, since he was a heritor.  The heritors, which included David Stewart, met periodically to deal with such matters as repairs to the Manse and the church. This building is rather plain, both inside and out, and its main claim to fame is that St Devenick was buried on the site, or nearby, in 887 AD.  In 1876, soon after the accession of AM Ogston to the Ardoe estate, the parish minister Rev Dr Paul reached his golden jubilee in that role.  A collection for his benefit was mounted in the parish and a generous sum of £300 (about £37,000 in 2021 money) accumulated.  Because their pastor was in poor health, the presentation had to be made privately and a deputation led by AM Ogston and including his brother James, performed that duty.  Rev Dr Paul’s successor was Rev William Lawrence who served for 37 years before dying in office.  AM Ogston saw him out too.  Alexander Milne Ogston became an elder of the church and often represented it at presbytery meetings.  He was a delegate to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1888.  One enduring concern of the Presbytery was the financial state of some livings, including Portlethen, where the income of the minister was less than £200 pa.  Alex M Ogston was chairman of the appeal committee and a generous contributor to the project.  He was also the donor of a new pipe organ for the Banchory-Devenick church in 1902.  Church social events, such as picnics, were often held in the elaborate and extensive grounds of Ardoe House.  In October 1925, a church sale was held in the parish but the laird of Ardoe was too infirm to attend.  Nonetheless, with his usual generosity he donated £10 to the event, probably his last act of benevolence to the church he had served faithfully since the early 1870s.

Banchory-Devenick Church

 

AM Ogston (1836) and charitable giving

The wealthy have always been inundated with requests to subscribe, or donate, to causes, charitable or otherwise.  Some choose generosity, others are parsimonious.  Without doubt, Alexander Milne Ogston was a generous man.  Between 1867, when he was 31, and 1924, two years before he died at the age of 90, he was a liberal contributor to many bodies and purposes, some repeatedly, as the following account demonstrates.  These are only the instances which were reported in the local press.  There may have been many other items.  AM Ogston’s pattern of giving demonstrated a strong interest in a few major themes.  Firstly, military organisations, events and activities, including the annual Wapinschaw, volunteer and territorial military formations and the Gordon Highlanders.  Allied to his military interests were his contributions to the relief of the victims of war, such as the Belgian Relief Fund of 1915.  Secondly, support of Aberdeen hospital facilities, including Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and Asylum and the Royal Aberdeen Hospital for Sick Children.  He also supported the Aberdeen Institute for the Deaf and Dumb, of which he was an honorary director between at least 1896 and 1915, and the Aberdeen District Nursing Association.  Thirdly, the relief of distress due to specific events locally, for example the Stonehaven Lifeboat Disaster of 1874 and internationally, such as the Chicago Relief Fund of 1871 and the Indian Famine of 1900.  Fourthly, local infrastructure, where he made significant, one-off donations, including to the University Building Extension Scheme (£200 – about £27,000 in 2021 money) in 1891, the Stonehaven Harbour Extension Scheme (£20) in 1894 and the proposed Technical College for Aberdeen and the North of Scotland (£100) in 1907.  Alexander Milne Ogston was also generous in his support of clubs for young people, £5 for St Katherine’s Club for Girls in 1919 and £50 (about £3,200 in 2021 money) for Aberdeen Lads’ Club in the East End in 1924.

 

AM Ogston (1836) and agriculture  

Although the Ardoe and associated estates in the ownership of Alexander Milne Ogston did not constitute a large landholding in North-East Scotland terms, at least much of his land was arable, unlike many of the large inland estates which mostly consisted of hill and mountain land.  He was elected to the Royal Northern Agricultural Society and was a member of its Committee of Management but his interests in agriculture as such were at the margin of his main activities and pursuits.  He did keep Leicester sheep and had a herd of dairy cows but his pride and joy in the agricultural field was his stable of carriage horses.  At the Royal Northern Agricultural show in Aberdeen in 1889, AM Ogston was second in the competition for Roadsters above 14 hands and third in the similar contest for animals under 12 ½ hands.

 

AM Ogston (1836) and fine art

Alexander Milne Ogston’s father, Alexander Ogston (1799) had been a member of the Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scotland and from about 1877 his son developed a keen interest in the fine arts too.  AM Ogston was then aged 41 and had discretionary cash to spend on indulging this passion and in assembling a personal collection of paintings.  He was a committee member responsible for mounting the 1877 Aberdeen Fine Art exhibition and thereafter he was regularly to be found attending exhibitions and other art-related events in his native city.  The Aberdeen Artists’ Society was formed in 1884 and mounted an annual exhibition of paintings.  Initially Alexander Milne Ogston was merely noted as attending these regular events but by the time of the 5^th annual exhibition in 1890, he was often recorded as lending pictures from his own collection for display at the event.  Gray’s School of Art was founded in 1885, part of Robert Gordon’s College and three years later AM Ogston was present at the prize-giving ceremony at the college.  That was also the year that his art buying is known to have become significant.  At an auction in Edinburgh, Josef Israel's "The Skipper's Children" was knocked down to Mr Ogston of Ardoe for 260gns  (about £38,000 in 2021 money).  By 1892 the Ardoe laird had been elected a vice-president of the Aberdeen Artists’ Society and was chairing meetings in the absence of the Marquis of Huntly, the president.  This passion for the fine arts was not confined to Alexander Milne Ogston.  His brother, James, was if anything even more self-indulgent and AM’s daughter Elliot, then aged 20 had "a sweet flower piece" on display at the 1894 exhibition.  By 1897, AM Ogston and his brother were attending the annual Royal Academy banquet in London. 

Robert Brough (1872 – 1905) was an illegitimate child born in humble circumstances who was raised by relatives near Aberdeen.  He was apprenticed as an engraver but later graduated from Gray’s School of Art and quickly established himself as a painter of considerable ability.  He moved to London and set up his studio there but, possibly before that relocation, he was commissioned by AM Ogston to paint his daughter, Elliot, a noted beauty.  This picture was exhibited at his studio on Show Sunday in March 1899 and was described as follows.  "She is represented walking down a flight of stone steps dressed in a summer gown of heliotrope.  And wearing a large picture hat".  It is likely the setting was the landscaped gardens of Ardoe House.  The picture was also exhibited at the Aberdeen Artists’ Exhibition the following year. Tragically, Robert Brough died at the age of 33 due to injuries received in a rail crash.  A memorial was raised to Robert Brough in 1905 and his patron, the Laird of Ardoe donated £10.  Joseph Farquharson, brother of the Laird of Finzean and local MP, Robert Farquharson, was a noted Deeside painter due to his portrayal of winter scenes, usually with sheep, on the family’s Feughside estate.  He too was commissioned to paint portraits of AM Ogston’s two daughters, Katherine and Elliot, in 1887.

Alexander Milne Ogston’s patronage of the arts continued apace.  In 1902 his wife and daughter, Elliot, accompanied him to Burlington House for the Royal Academy banquet.  His attendance at this event clearly gave him much pleasure, perhaps especially since it afforded an opportunity to hobnob with the great and good in the capital.  The 1906 event, which AM Ogston also attended, was thus described in the Aberdeen Journal.  “The annual banquet of the Royal Academy was given on Saturday night in the central picture gallery at Burlington House. There was a most brilliant and distinguished company, all the professions, arts and sciences, being represented. The president, Sir E. Poynter, received his guests at the head of the staircase, which had been charmingly decorated with choice flowers. Among those present were the Duke of Connaught, the Duke of Fife. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Mr Haldane, Mr Rudyard Kipling, A. M. Ogston Ardoe, Colonel James Ogston of Kildrummy Castle, Mr Theodore Crombie, Aberdeen Mr James Murray, M.P., etc”.  Nineteen hundred and five had seen the opening of a sculpture gallery at the Aberdeen Art Gallery and, true to form, AM Ogston had donated a statue of King David from Freiburg Cathedral to the collection.  Alexander M also continued his own expansive programme of art purchases when he acquired “The stair in Links House, Montrose” by Paul Chambers for 350 gns in the same year.  Also, in his personal collection by the time of the following Aberdeen Artists’ Exhibition were “Old cottage at Langham Suffolk” by John Constable and his own portrait painted by Sir George Reid, RSA.  The following year he lent two Robert Brough paintings, “Sweet Violets” and “Fedalma” to the Aberdeen Artists Society exhibition.  Alexander Milne Ogston was also an admirer of the work of Sam Bough (1822 – 1878), an English painter who had spent much of his working life in Scotland.  By 1910 he had acquired “Kirkwall Harbour” by this artist, "Lifting Potatoes" by Anton Mauve (1838 – 1888) and also two pictures by the French pre-impressionist, Jean Baptiste Camille Corot (1796 – 1875).  Two years later the Ardoe art connoisseur had bought further paintings by internationally recognised artists, including "Hercules twixt Virtue and Vice" by Henri Fantin-Latour (1836 – 1904) and Anton Mauve's "The Edge of the Wood".  Alexander Milne Ogston continued as a vice-president in the Aberdeen Artists’ Society until at least 1923 and had been associated with that leading promoter of the fine arts in his native city for about 40 years, since its inception in 1884.

 

AM Ogston (1836) and the city of Aberdeen

Through his involvement in civic affairs, Alexander Milne Ogston received numerous marks of prestige during his life, one of the most important of which was being granted the status of Burgess of Guild of the City and Royal Burgh of Aberdeen, a civic institution of great antiquity, dating back to 1124.  Alexander received this status in 1875 and retained it for the next 51 years.  Aberdeen Mechanics’ Institute was established in 1824 to provide cheap access to science and engineering knowledge for young men in the town working as tradesmen in the practical arts.  It had a library and mounted lectures on a variety of subjects, made available outwith the working day.  The members commissioned a building, designed by Archibald Simpson which was built in Market Street in 1840.  Given the aims of the Institute, it is not surprising that it should have been supported by Alexander Milne Ogston, a major manufacturer employing many young men who could benefit from its services.  He was a subscriber as early as 1871 and the same year was appointed as an auditor.  The importance of science for the manufacturing enterprises in the city was emphasised in 1890 when Dr Carnelly, Professor of Chemistry in the University of Aberdeen addressed a meeting of gentlemen in the Lord Provost's room at the Town House, when he supported the need to expand the teaching of practical chemistry, so as not to fall behind other major cities in Scotland.  A knowledge of chemistry, especially practical chemistry was essential to the well-being of Alexander Milne Ogston’s Loch Street manufactory and he, along with other major manufacturers, attended the talk.

Bon-Accord hotel, formerly Michanics' Institute

 

Aberdeen in the late 19^th century was typical of the large conurbations in Scotland and elsewhere in having many civic occasions involving pomp and civic pride where many guests were invited to be present simply on the basis of their public prominence.  Many such occasions involving the presence of the senior partner in A Ogston & Sons were recorded in the local press.  A few examples will serve to illustrate AM Ogston’s status.  The granting of the Freedom of the City of Aberdeen was such a ceremony and AM Ogston was present when Sir Arthur Gordon received this honour in 1878, Lord Rosebery in 1884, Andrew Carnegie in 1892, Lord Mount Stephen in 1901 and Lord Strathcona in 1902.  Similarly, the Laird of Ardoe was present when a civic dinner was given in honour of the visit to Aberdeen by the Lord Mayor of London in 1893.  He also attended the reception for the Marquis and Marchioness of Aberdeen in the Town and County Hall in 1915, on their return from service in the Viceroyalty of Ireland.  The ultimate civic accolade for Alexander Milne Ogston would have been to serve as Lord Provost of Aberdeen.  In 1892 he was openly discussed as a candidate for the role, as Lord Provost Rust’s period of office was coming to an end.  Alexander had been approached on a previous occasion to stand for the role but had declined.  However, on this occasion he agreed to receive a deputation, but without commitment.  After a few days’ thought, he withdrew his name from consideration.  Clearly, the extra demand on his time was the factor which caused him to stand down.  He probably felt that he could not take responsibility for the role of Lord Provost and run his manufacturing business simultaneously, and the business came first.  Although his name was mentioned again as a possible Lord Provost three years later, he had made his decision and would not reconsider.  In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, Aberdeen had several active shipyards and there were regular launches of a succession of new vessels, often for coastal shipping companies carrying both freight and passengers.  AM Ogston was a director of some of the owning companies (see below) and was often present, with members of his family, at launch ceremonies, the following cake and wine banquets and on trial voyages, such as that of the steamer St Sunniva in May 1887 and the launch of the ss Salamis in 1899.

 

AM Ogston (1836) and local administration in Kincardineshire

Alexander Milne Ogston was appointed as a Justice of the Peace for Kincardineshire in or before 1885 and was generally involved in licensing and valuation matters.  He may have given up this role after 1904, as no mention of such activities on the bench has been found after that year.

Commissioners of Supply constituted local administrative bodies in Scotland from 1667, when they were introduced, initially to collect taxes.  They subsequently acquired other roles in local government until 1890 when the new county councils took over many of their functions.  Commissioners of Supply were often drawn from the ranks of wealthy landowners in each county.  AM Ogston was a member of their ranks for Kincardineshire at least between 1879 and 1900.  Local government in Scotland was reformed in 1889 and County Councils introduced, the first elections for this new set of democratic bodies being held the following year.  The Ardoe estate was sited in Kincardineshire, whose county town was Stonehaven.  Alexander Milne Ogston attended a meeting of electors in Kirkton School, Maryculter when both he and Mr Walker, a major farmer in Portlethen, were nominated to stand, but after a vote Ogston prevailed, Walker withdrew, and AM Ogston was returned unopposed.  He served continuously as county councillor for Maryculter until at least 1923.  During this long period in office, he fulfilled many roles including serving as the representative of the county on the Aberdeen Prison Visiting Committee, the County Finance Committee of which he became convener, the Public Health Committee, the Secondary Education Committee, the Lower Deeside Committee and the County Road Board.

 

AM Ogston (1836)’s family

Alexander Milne Ogston married Katherine Anne Mitchell Rennie, daughter of Charles Moray Hill Rennie, a brewer, in 1872.  Five children were born over the following nine years, Katherine Emily in 1873, Elliot Mabel in 1874, Alexander Gordon in 1875, Charles in 1877 and James Norman in 1881.  Daughter Katherine married Arthur Ormond Norman, who hailed from a military family, in 1894 in a lavish wedding staged at Ardoe House.  Arthur Norman served in the 2^nd Bttn, Gordon Highlanders, being posted for some time at Peterhead as adjutant of the Volunteers there.  He served at the front in the Second Boer War but was invalided home with a heart condition, which forced his retirement from the Army in 1901.  He died in 1908 and his widow then moved to the Ardoe estate where she appeared to spend the rest of her life, dying at Shannaburn in 1955.  AM Ogston’s second daughter, the talented and beautiful, Elliot Mabel also made a military marriage.  Her husband was Richard James Saumarez, who hailed from a famous naval family in the Channel Islands and who was a major in the Royal Marine Light Infantry.  He eventually reached the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and became a CMG.  Alexander Gordon Ogston, the eldest son, married Violet Leslie at Bieldside in 1906.  He joined Ogston and Tennant Limited and by 1914 had been admitted to the board of directors.  He was also a director of his brother, James Norman Ogston’s Ogston Motor Company and a number of other entities.  AG Ogston died at Ardoe in 1943.  Charles Ogston was born in 1877 and pursued a distinguished military career in the Gordon Highlanders, serving on the North-West Frontier and throughout the Second Boer War and in WW1.  He was mentioned in dispatches several times and was awarded the DSO in 1916.  Charles was also endowed with the CMG and retired with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.  On the death of his uncle, James Ogston, he inherited the estate of Kildrummy.  Charles Ogston remained unmarried and died on Donside in 1944.  James Norman Ogston was the youngest son of AM Ogston.  He became an engineer rising to Chief of the Design Staff at the Napier Company.  JN Ogston left this position to start the Ogston Motor Company which manufactured “Deemster” cars until 1924.  He married Canadian Ethel Margaret Ewart in 1916.  James Norman Ogston died in 1972.

Ogston Deemster

 

The Ardoe ghosts

Various rumours surround the existence of ghosts in both Ardoe House, the home of Alexander Milne Ogston (1836) and Norwood Hall, the abode of James Ogston (1845).  The propagation of such tales probably owes more to the present use of each property as a hotel than any other reason.  The Aberdeen magazine “Doric Columns” in 1978 published a story about Ardoe House in which it was recounted that a ghost called the “White Lady” had been seen at Ardoe.  She is supposed to be the spirit of “a former owner’s daughter Katherine Ogston who committed suicide and has been seen in various parts of the Hotel”.  Katherine Emily Ogston (1873) is the only former resident exactly fitting this description.  She was the daughter of Alexander Milne Ogston (1836).  Katherine did not commit suicide but died, aged 82, of “general arteriosclerosis, uraemia due to arteriosclerotic kidney disease and intestinal obstruction due to adhesions”.  The only other “Katherine” who came close to fitting the bill was Katherine Anne Mitchell Rennie, the wife of Alexander Milne Ogston and the daughter-in-law of previous Ardoe owner, Alexander Ogston (1799).  She died in 1909, aged 63, with the recorded cause being “cerebral apoplexy 3hrs”.  The hotel’s own website links the ghost to AM Ogston’s wife, Katherine, or to “the ghost of a former owner who was raped and fell pregnant before killing herself and her child”.  Anyone reading articles on this blogsite will immediately realise that they are all based firmly on a reliable and extensive body of factual information, the very properties lacking in these ghost stories emanating from Ardoe House.  However, do these stories hint at unsavoury events from the past?  Nothing concrete has been discovered which gives any credence to the notion that there might be a morsel of truth in the Ardoe ghost stories.  However, it should be noted that the pattern of child-bearing in the marriage of Alexander Milne Ogston and Katherine Rennie was unusual.  All five of their children were born between 1873, when Katherine was 27 and 1882, when she had reached 36, well short of the normal onset of the menopause.  Could there have been some disharmony in the relationship between husband and wife which precluded further procreation after 1882?

 

A Ogston & Sons social, charity and sporting activities

The general impression gained at this distance is that the firm of A Ogston & Sons was an efficient, hard-working and generally contented place of employment.  This is reflected in the many activities in which the workforce was collectively involved, outwith the business of manufacturing, the interactions between the owners and the employees and the reports of employees retiring after a lifetime with this employer.  Charitable donations by the employees of Alexander Ogston (1799) prior to 1868 had been made but such activities greatly increased during the regime of brothers AM Ogston and J Ogston.  In those pre-National Health Service days, the local hospital, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, was funded by charitable donations, including from the employees of major firms, such as A Ogston & Sons.  These donations, though individually small, were made frequently and published lists of ARI donations generally included a sum from the Soap and Candle Works.  Sometimes these donations appeared to be general but by 1884 the 12 coopers in Ogston’s cooperage were providing 5/- monthly.  Also, if a social event was held, any financial surplus would often be passed on to ARI.  In addition to donations from the workforce, the management of the company donated £10 per annum, a sum which entitled them to nominate a hospital manager for the following year if they chose to do so.  In 1880, £1 was worth about £128 in 2021 money.  Ogstons’ employees also gave to other worthy causes, such as funds to support the unemployed, though their collective priorities were revealed in 1884 when their donation to the “Working Class Bell” in the new peal at St Nicholas’ church, Aberdeen, attracted only 3d!  Towards the end of this period of existence of the firm of A Ogston & Sons, the increased size and subdivision of its activities was reflected in its donations.  For example, in 1893, donations to the unemployed fund came from the coopers (4/-), candle department (10/3), refining department (5/6), general department (12/6), still-house (6/3), margarine department (7/-) and box-makers (7/9).  The senior managers in the firm were also active on behalf of employees who had retired or died.  In 1896, "An exceedingly enjoyable benefit concert promoted by the employees of Messrs A Ogstons, Aberdeen Soap Works, was given in the new Trades Hall on Saturday afternoon, in aid of the widows and families of three former employees of the firm.  There was a large attendance.  The platform party included Mr James Lee, manager;Mr Allan, cashier, Mr Lindsay, confidential clerk, Mr Brown, despatch clerk, Captain Hurry, Mr Lawrence, foreman boxmaster, Mr Nicol, yard foreman, Mr Dorian, cooper, Mr Mitchell, Mutter, Howie, Co and Mr A Black, chairman of committee.  On the motion of Mr Black, Mr James Lee was called to the chair.  Two of the late employees had worked for the company since they were boys.

Alexander Milne Ogston (1836), the senior partner in the firm of A Ogston & Sons and the owner of the grand estate of Ardoe a few miles distant from Aberdeen, often made his country property available to the workers and their families for an annual picnic.  The first such occasion detected was in 1875 when 250 employees, sweethearts, wives and families travelled from the Joint Station by the North Deeside line to Cults where they alighted and walked over the river by the Morrison suspension bridge (known locally as the “Shakkin Briggie”) to the Ardoe estate in Maryculter.  There they were entertained to dinner and tea and enjoyed a programme of sports, with prizes, and dancing to a string band.  Similar picnics were also reported in the local press in 1877, 1879, 1884, 1885, 1886, 1887, 1888, 1891 and 1896, though it was often described as an annual event.  The firm met all the costs of these staff excursions and the numbers reported as attending varied up to 450.  These picnics seemed to end after the formation of Ogston and Tennant Ltd.  Other types of events were also introduced into the firm’s social calendar, often on a departmental basis.  In 1875 the candlemakers held their first annual social meeting in the Music Hall just before the New Year.  The candlemakers repeated this event in March 1885, when dancing continued to an early hour.  By 1894 this general evening social event was extended to all departments at the firm and was held at the Bon-Accord hotel.  The next year, a similar get-together took place at the same venue and the following report appeared in the Aberdeen Journal.  "The annual supper of the office staff and foremen in connection  with the Aberdeen Soap and Candle Works was held in the Bon-Accord Hotel on Saturday evening.  Mr James Cheyne occupied the chair, while the croupier was Mr AM Smith.  After an excellent repast the Chairman, in proposing the toastof the evening, "Prosperity to the firm of Messrs A Ogston & Sons", referred to the harmonious feeling that existed between the heads of the establishment and the employees.  Mr Watson, sen, replied, and contrasted the small establishment of 40 years ago, when he entered the service, with the large business done at the present day.  Speexhes were given by Mr Watson, jun., manager of the soap department, and Messrs M'Pherson, Allan, Ingram, Watson, and Henderson; readings by Messrs Esson and James Cheyne; a violin solo by Mr Bruce and a piano solo by Mr John Cheyne.  A very happy evening was spent, and the company separated after singing "Auld Land Syne"".  This was an employee-organised event and demonstrated the pride they felt in their place of work and the cohesion between workmates.

Most of A Ogston & Sons’ employees were male, so it is not surprising to find that works sports teams were promoted.  Cricket enjoyed a period of popularity between1878 and the advent of Ogston and Tennant Ltd, the home games being played at the Aulton Links, Old Aberdeen against other teams which themselves were usually associated with industrial enterprises, such as the Broadford Works and Gordon’s Mills.  Ogstons’ clerks also had a football team, which occasionally played matches.

 

A Ogston & Sons’ managers

John Strath (1820 – 1897) was born in Tarves, Aberdeenshire and was initially employed by Alexander Ogston (1799) as a traveller.  However, by 1861 he was a manager in the Loch Street works.  Subsequently, he was taken into the firm of A Ogston & Sons as a partner some time before 1881.  His son, David Murray Strath became a director of Ogston and Tennant Ltd.  Another senior employee of A Ogston & Sons was James Lee, who was born in Kent in 1832 and who worked for some years for the Price Candle Company in London.  In 1875 he was recruited to manage Ogstons’ candle department in Aberdeen.  By 1896 he was the manager of the Soap and Candle Works and in that year, he gave a lecture on paraffin candle-making to the Skene Square Evening School, the report of which in the Aberdeen Journal was illuminating on the subject of product innovation at the Works.  The paraffin was distilled from cannel or boghead coal which was mined in Central Scotland.  This mineral was heated at 600 degrees in a retort and various fractions separated from the distillate.  The wicks were made from perfectly sound cotton fibres able to burn freely to produce the least ash.  Originally, candles had been available only to the rich.  He had produced the halfpenny candle followed by the penny candle while an employee of Price.  After other firms, such as Ogstons, followed suit he turned his attention to candles for the West End of London, producing pure hand-painted candles at 42s/lb!  His latest invention in Aberdeen had been a small candle with a base which would stand in a railway carriage or for domestic use without the need for a candle stick.  Firms only enjoyed a monopoly on a new product for a short time, so there was a need for constanty innovation.  He displayed examples of a large variety of candles, the coal from which the paraffin wax was produced and samples of the material in its various stages of refinement, which had been ent by Messrs James Young & Sons, the major distiller of paraffin in Scotland.  James Lee’s skill as a candlemaker was well known and he was engaged to supply a special candle for the wedding of Princess Maud, the third daughter of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) to Prince Carl of Denmark in 1896.  A description of the product was published in the Aberdeen Journal.  "The candle is of pure white paraffin wax and made to fit into a pink paraffin wax holder neatly shaped highly ornamented with flowers and grapes and tapered at the end to allow of being placed in a candle holoder.  The candle together with the holder stands about 2ft high and the whole bears testimony to the excellent manufactures of Messrs A Ogston & Sons".  After the wedding, Lee received a letter of appreciation from the Princess.

James Watson was born in Tough, Aberdeenshire and joined Ogstons in 1857, serving for many years as a traveller.  By 1875 he was the firm’s book-keeper.  His son, James also joined A Ogston & Sons, rising to the position of cashier in 1881 and works manager of Ogston and Tennant by 1901.  He was heavily involved in the recovery of the company from the severe fire of 1904 and in the action for slander in 1910 by Ogston and Tennant against the Daily Record (see below).  Another long-serving employee was Alexander Hendry who was employed for 40 years at the Loch Street works.

 

Balmoral paraffin soap

Ogstons introduced new products from time to time, such as “Balmoral paraffin soap” about 1868.  This is a curious name which implies that paraffin (or paraffin wax) is a raw material or an ingredient of the soap.  However, paraffin does not saponify on treating with alkali.  There seems to be no benefit in adding paraffin to soap, since that would only leave an oily film and would be likely to impart an undesirable smell.  Perhaps the name refers to the process of generating synthetic fatty acids by oxidising paraffin, a process which was invented in 1868, and the utilisation of these fatty acids to make soap?  By 1890, the name of this product appears to have been changed to “Balmoral Effectual Cleanser Soap”.  “Balmoral” was also a brand name applied to Ogstons’ toilet soap.  By 1893 the firm was also producing oleo (oil) for the manufacture of margarine, though not on the Loch Street site.

 

Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce

The Aberdeen and North of Scotland Trade Protection Society was formed in 1854.  Its function was to protect companies from fraud and bad debt.  “Alex Ogston of Ardoe” was elected a director for the year.  That person is likely to have been Alex Ogston (1799).  He continued in this role until at least 1862 and possibly until he died in 1869.  However, in 1871, at the 16^th AGM of the society, Alex Ogston of Ardo was elected a director for the following year of the society, whose name had been changed to “Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce and North of Scotland Trade Protection Society”.  This “Alexander Ogston” can only have been AM Ogston (1836) and he was re-elected each year until 1874.  Thereafter the organisation again changed its name to simply “Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce”.  AM Ogston then dropped from the scene and was replaced by his brother, James, who was a member of the council of the organisation until about 1886.  Ogston and Tennant Limited continued as a member of the Chamber and in 1914 a guarantee fund of £2,000 was raised to allow the Aberdeen chamber to invite the Association of Chambers of Commerce to hold their autumnal meeting in the Granite City.  Ogstons contributed £20 to that fund.

 

AM Ogston (1836)’s other business activities

Alexander Milne Ogston proved to have exceptional business acumen, not only steering A Ogston & Sons to success but also investing in and sitting on the management boards of other companies whose fields of activity were remote from the manufacture of soap and candles.  He was particularly involved in shipping companies, and in banking and finance, though there were two other major concerns which enjoyed his participation, and which occupied further areas of business.

 

Richards Ltd

The Broadford works in Aberdeen was established in 1808 as a flax spinning mill but the company owning the site became bankrupt three years later.  Broadford was revived under the new ownership of Stephen and John Maberley, who in due course took on a new partner, JB Richards.  In 1831 this partnership was dissolved, and Richards took over ownership of the site in partnership with Mr Leader, specialising in the manufacture of linen cloth.  It became one of the largest employers in Aberdeen for several decades but towards the end of the 19^th century ran into problems, declining in size until in 1898 a syndicate of 20 Aberdeen businessmen, including AM Ogston of Ardoe, made a proposal to buy the whole Broadford works for £45,000.  Richards accepted the offer subject to the reservation of an area of undeveloped land, which brought forth a revised offer for the whole site at a price of £46,000 (about £6.4 million in 2021 money), which was accepted.  Richards & Company was then transformed into a limited liability company.  Shares in the new company were offered to the public and there was sufficient take-up of the offer for the planned programme of development to go ahead.  Alexander Milne Ogston was an interim director of Richards Limited and the first AGM of the company was held in November 1898.  AM Ogston remained a director from the time of formation of the limited liability entity in 1898 until his death in 1926.

Richards' Broadford Works

 

The saga of Aberdeen District Tramways

Trams, passenger-carrying vehicles running on rails in the streets, were introduced into Britain in the second half of the 19^th century.  Initially the motive power was provided by horses but later equine muscles were progressively replaced by electric power delivered by overhead cables.  The first proposal to provide Aberdeen with a tramway occurred in 1870 with a scheme from Mr Lachlan Mackinnon.  The following year the Aberdeen District Tramways Company (Limited) was formed by a provisional committee, one member of which was Alexander Milne Ogston, who soon started to preside at its meetings.  In 1872 an Act of Parliament approving the development was successfully promoted. Shares were offered to the public in this new entity, which had a capital of £75,000 in shares of £10 each.  The first OGM of the company was held in February 1873 with AM Ogston in the chair and James Ogston also present.  It was not until September 1874 that the first line was constructed, and a horse-drawn tram service inaugurated.  This important occasion for Aberdeen was reported in the Aberdeen Journal.  The weather was good and at 2.00pm on Monday 31^st August six tramcars left the depot, which was located at Queen’s Cross, carrying the VIP party of company directors, the Lord Provost, the magistrates and many prominent invitees.  In fact, these six cars constituted the full complement owned by the company at the time.  Two cars carried 20 passengers each, all under cover, and the other four carried 40 persons, with half inside and the remainder outside.  The initial route ran down Albyn Place to the North Church on Union Street and, separately, George Street out to the terminus at Kittybrewster.  The VIP procession travelled the whole route into Union Street and then out to Kittybrewster.  Back at Queen’s Cross, Alexander Milne Ogston, the company chairman, declared the tramway open. 

Aberdeen trams

Aberdeen District Tramways Ltd held shareholders’ meetings six monthly and in the first year of operations a gross profit of just over £51 was made on a turnover of £2,548.  It had carried over half a million passengers in the first half of 1875.  The following year the company earned a net revenue of £300 and was able to declare a modest dividend for the first time. This beneficial state of affairs did not last and for several years the company struggled to achieve profitability.  Initially, the fare of 1d per mile was the same for inside and outside passengers but by 1877 a differential was introduced in the fare structure, with the inside passenger fare being doubled but this change was badly received by the travelling public and passenger numbers dropped off.  The company then reduced the service to save money, selling off horses and dismissing servants.  It also engineered the two routes, to Queen’s Cross and to Kittybrewster, to overlap in the central area giving increased capacity where demand was greatest.  By the time of the 11^th ordinary half-yearly meeting in February 1878, the company was back in profit and proposals were being made to construct new lines.  1.  From Kittybrewster to Woodside.  2.  From Union Place to Cults.  3.  From Bridge Street along Guild Street and the Quays to the Dock Gates.  4.  From the North church to Ladymill and King Street Road near the University buildings, Old Aberdeen.  A bill was successfully introduced in Parliament in 1878 to gain approval for the extension of the Aberdeen tramway system.  The extensions were completed before the end of 1879 and in that year a dividend of 4½% was paid to shareholders.

However, at that time late in the 19^th century, Aberdeen winters were generally bad.  Snow frequently covered the streets, preventing the operation of the tram service without the clearing of the rails. This was done in two ways, firstly by ploughing snow off the rails to lie in piles beside the lines and secondly by salting the rails.  The obstruction caused by piling snow on the roads and the presence of salty puddles raised the ire of James Ogston (1845) who found both practices damaging to his frequent horse-drawn journeys into central Aberdeen from his home at Norwood Hall, Cults, which passed along the North Deeside Road, Great Western Road, Albyn Place and Union Street.  Being sufficiently wealthy, in 1886 he instructed counsel to give an opinion on the legality of these snow-clearing practices.  The conclusion was that both were illegal.  He sent the opinion to the Town Council, and it was considered by the Law and Streets Committee but apparently no action was taken.  Perhaps they hoped that the problem would go away?  The winter of 1894 – 1895 was particularly severe, James Ogston’s patience ran out and he sought an interdict against Aberdeen District Tramways Ltd to prevent them using snowploughs and salting to clear the streets.  Proof was ordered for 24 October 1895.  In early October, the council’s Streets and Roads Committee met with the directors of the tramways company to consider James Ogston’s litigation.  The result was a recommendation by the committee to the council to oppose the action, but it was also recognised that the council and the tramways company needed to agree on the method to be used to clear obstructing snow.

In court, James Ogston gave his evidence which was summarised in the Aberdeen Journal.  "He said that during the snowstorm in January last the Tramway Comp0any used a snowplough in Great Western Road and had thrown the snow to the sides of their line but had done nothing further as to removing it.  These accumulations rendered the street almost impassable.  The company also put salt on their lines, but the brine ran off the line and thus saved their own horses.  On 5th January he met a tramway car and had to drive into a heap of snow.  He comp-lained to the town clerk and the Tramway Company had the snow heaped up into piles.  Thaty was almost worse.  It lay for several days and was then carted away but it was so hard by that time that it had to be broken with picks".  James Ogston claimed that the brine caused particular injury to the feet of his horses.  He had complained to the council and that had brought some improvement in the central area of the town, which was cleared first, but his difficulties started in the suburbs through which he travelled, and injury and inconvenience persisted.  In November, Lord Low gave his decision in the action, and it was in favour of the defenders in the case.  But, as will be discovered, it was not by any means the end of the matter.  James Ogston quickly decided to appeal the verdict.

It was about this time that the Town Council started to consider bidding to buy the tramways company, perhaps as a means of boosting civic prestige by owning this new means of mass transport?  This aspiration may have been influential in the ill-judged decision of this public representative body to intervene on the side of one party to the action.  The Conservative-leaning Aberdeen Journal was deeply unimpressed with Lord Low’s decision, and its editor, David Pressley, said so in an opinion piece, which asserted that the win was due to a combination of circumstances, not the merits of the case.  "The meaning of the decision is this, that if the Aberdeen Town Council chooses for any reason to accord its approval to any action of the Tramway Company, any application by a private individual of a similar nature to that of  Mr Ogston would have no chance of being successful.  In other words, there is no remedy to be got in the Court of Session when the Town Council and the Tramway Company combine together".

The dispute over snow clearing became even more mired in controversy when James Ogston’s appeal was rejected by Lord Young at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.  The editor of the Aberdeen Journal again picked up his acerbic pen and started by referring to Young as a "judicial joker".  "We are not surprised to learn that a considerable amount of unfavourable comment has been excited in legal circlesin Edinburgh by the remarkable exhibition of judicial jocosity indulged in by Lord Young with regard to the Aberdeen street-salting case.  A good deal of allowance is made for his lordship from the fact that he is a confirmed and inveterate joker, whether on or off the bench, but the general opinion appears to be that on this occasion he entirely overstepped the privilege which his position confers upon him and descended to the level of the forensic farceur.  No doubt his sallies relieved the proceedings of dullness, and gave rise to much laughter, but there was more to the Judge's hilarity than a boistrous wit and a desire to throw ridicule on the plaintiff''s case.  From the very first his lordship manifested a strong hostility to the pursuer's view of his rights, and all through he showed a marked and petulant impatience of the arguments which Mr Ogston's counsel desired to present to the court.  Constant interruptions in the form of quips and cranks and witticisms are not usually tolerated in a court from any side but Mr Abel, on whom fell the duty of arguing the case in the Second Division, was subjected to a torrent of the most irritating, quizical and querulous interjections, jokes, and interrogations we have ever seen addresssed to a counsel from the bench.  It is hardly possible to imagine that Mr Asher QC, or any other senior counsel would have tolerated such persistent interruptions.  Only the other day in one of the London courts, a barrister indignantly gave up a case and quitted the court as a protest against some interruptions from the bench.  It says much for Mr Abel's good nature and patience that he continued to argue the salting case in face of Lord Young's repeated interruptions, and his evident desire to turn the case into ridicule, and to "rub in the salt" with a biting tongue and exceedingly broad humour.  It is no doubt a serious thing to impugn the conduct of one of Her Majesty's judges in the discharge of his high duties, but the fact of such duties being entrusted to a man ought to make him have some regard for ordinary judicial decorum, and to avoid bringing the law into contempt by turning the bench into a rostrum for the discharge of small funniosities".

At a further appeal to the Second Division, Lord Young’s decision was confirmed.  For lesser men, this would have been the end of the road but not for James Ogston, who was short neither of wealth nor determination.  He decided to take his appeal to the final stage by bringing his case before the House of Lords, which occurred in May 1896.  The Law Lords considered the case in mid-December of that year and James Ogston travelled down to London to be present at the proceedings.  He was successful with his appeal and interdict was ordered against the tramways company.  Costs of £4,000 were awarded against the defender.  The Aberdeen Journal, now fully vindicated in the stance it had taken returned with a scathing attack on various parties to the case.  On Lord Young, the joker who threw out James Ogston’s first appeal, "We trust his lordship will now, in view of the decision of the House of Lords, be able to appreciate thoroughly the exact value that is to be placed on boisterous jokes as a means of settling an important legal question".  The Aberdeen Town Council, "The calm critical and searching atmosphere of the House of Lords is an uncongenial climate for the considerations of the decisions of judicial jokers in Edinburgh - and we may add it is equally trying as a place for reviewing the proceedings of hedging and wobbling Town Councillors further north".  "We do not wish to indulge in the "I told you so" sryle of comment, but we feel bound to point out how badly the Council comes out of the whole business, and we may be allowed to express satisfaction that the view we have maintained from the outset of the case has now been decisively and finally upheld".

In August 1898, Aberdeen Town Council became the owner of Aberdeen District Tramways Company Limited’s assets, paying £84,735 (about £11.8 million in 2021 money) or £15/share, a decent uplift on the £10/share opening price in those low inflation times.  The Town Council also relieved the company of all mortgages, debts, contracts and obligations existing on the day of transfer.  The company was dissolved on the day of the take-overt and management was then overseen by a Tramways Committee, which, in true council fashion, embarked on a tour of the tramways depots they had acquired.  The tramways company had come a long way in the 24 years since it was established.  It had built up a network of over 11 miles of track, it had carried over 60 million passengers and earned revenue of over £335,000.  Traffic had increased by five-fold and its compliment of horses had increased from 56 to 243.  At the half-yearly meeting held in February 1898, the company announced the highest net profit it had ever made at £4,262.  Alexander Milne Ogston, the first chairman of the company was still a director at the close and must have felt a deal of satisfaction at the performance of the firm he had had the courage to back a quarter of a century earlier.  However, the role of his brother, James, in doggedly holding both the company and the Town Council to account, had been a costly affair and must have caused some tension within the Ogston family.  Lachlan Mackinnon, the originator of the tramway proposal, also had the satisfaction of living long enough to see his tramways idea reach fruition.  He died in 1899

There was a postscript of sorts to this affair.  James Ogston, wearing the hat of Colonel James Ogston, commander of the 1^st Aberdeen Artillery Volunteers (see below), was involved with the Volunteers for many years.  He drilled and exercised his men on the Aberdeen Links, where the Beach Battery was located.  In 1900, Aberdeen Town Council promoted a Parliamentary Bill for the expansion of the tramway network.  One proposal was for the tramway to be extended to the beach.  Colonel Ogston and other Volunteer officers objected to the route proposed.  Instead of the track taking a direct line from Constitution Street to the Bathing Station, they wanted the route to be modified to pass around the base of the Broadhill, so as not to divide the area used for Volunteer military activities, and sent a memorial to the Town Council to that effect.  The protesters were ignored, which annoyed both the Aberdeen Journal’s editor and the Volunteer officers.  It was the role of the Volunteers to defend Aberdeen from possible attack, so they obviously felt they should be cut some slack.  Colonel Ogston and his fellow officers then routed their protest through the War Office.  But this manoeuvre too was ineffective.  Was there an element of retaliation in the Town Council’s tin-eared response to James Ogston’s request?

 

AM Ogston (1836) and shipping companies     

A Ogston & Sons was a heavy user of shipping for the transport of both raw materials and finished goods.  It is therefore not surprising that its senior partner should feel an affinity for this industry and that he became a major investor in shipping companies and a board member of several such firms.  The Aberdeen Steam Navigation Company was one such operator.  It was formed in 1835 by the amalgamation of two pre-existing entities, the Aberdeen & London Shipping Company and the Aberdeen & London Steam Navigation Company.  The principal operations of the new company were along the east coast of Scotland and England.  It operated until 1945, when it was subsumed into the Tyne-Tees Shipping Company.  AM Ogston became a director of the company before 1886 and continued in this role until 1925, the year before his death.  His son, Alexander Gordon Ogston succeeded his father on the board of the company.  For some time, James Ogston was a director of the same company.  In 1890, the company’s vessel, ss City of Aberdeen was sent on a trial voyage to Norway to gauge its potential for tourist traffic.  AM Ogston was a guest on this trip.  In 1892 the company commissioned a new steam ship, the ss Hogarth, from Aberdeen yard, Hall Russell.  The vessel was launched in December of the same year and AM Ogston and his wife attended the launch and its associated junketing, along with his brother, James.

The North of Scotland and Orkney and Shetland Steam Navigation Company , to give it its full title, formally came into existence in 1875, being formed from the pre-existing Aberdeen Leith & Clyde Shipping Company.  It was seldom given its full, rather cumbersome title, more commonly being known as the North of Scotland Steam Company.  It mainly served routes in Scotland, including to the Northern Isles.  Alexander Milne Ogston agreed to join the board of directors in 1886 and from the following year he was chairman of the board.  Alexander Milne Ogston continued in this position until at least 1920 and was a director until at least 1922.  The company was generally successful and was particularly noted for its innovative tourist cruises to Norway, introduced in 1886 using a standard ferry, the St Rognvald, which started from Leith, called at Aberdeen and then travelled on to Bergen.  AM Ogston and his family sailed on this inaugural journey.  The board of directors immediately ordered a new vessel, to be fitted out as a cruise ship to serve an expanded cruise programme in the summer of 1887.  The vessel, called St Sunniva, was built by Hall Russell in Aberdeen and launched at the end of March.  AM Ogston of Ardoe was present at the celebration lunch and said that the experimental cruise the previous year to Norway had far exceeded expectations.  In 1892, two new screw steamers for the company were launched from the Hall Russel yard, the St Ola and the St Giles, the latter for the Shetland mail service.  The launch ceremony for the St Ola was performed by “Miss Ogston of Ardoe”, which could have been Katherine (1873) or Elliot (1874), followed by a cake and wine banquet.  In 1891, “Miss Ogston” performed the naming ceremony at the launch of the new St Rognvald.  Without doubt, Alexander Milne Ogston had successfully guided the company for a period of about 35 years, maintaining the confidence of his fellow directors throughout a remarkably long stint at the helm.

Presumably the shareholders of the two shipping companies, the Aberdeen Steam Navigation Company and the North of Scotland and Orkney and Shetland Steam Navigation Company, were comfortable with AM Ogston chairing each simultaneously because they were mainly not in competition.  His services were also called upon by the Adam Steamship Company in 1883 when he oversaw its transition to limited liability status.  AM Ogston then continued as a director of the company until at least 1893.  The company was based in Aberdeen, but little has been discovered about its operations.  The laird of Ardoe was also the chairman of another rather mysterious shipping line, the Grampian Steamship Company, in 1889 but that appointment appeared to be ephemeral.

 

AM Ogston (1836) and banking, insurance, mortgage and investment

Alexander Milne Ogston was also active as an investor and a director of companies in the general area of banking, insurance, mortgage and investment.  The North British and Mercantile Insurance Company was formed in 1862 by the merger of two pre-existing entities, the North British Insurance Company and the Mercantile Fire Insurance Company.  It had agencies throughout Britain and much of the rest of the world, including a branch in Aberdeen.  The business it transacted included fire, life, marine and accident.  AM Ogston first became a local director of the company in or before 1890.  He continued in this role until at least 1914.  Another insurer, the Scottish Provincial Assurance Company, also used AM Ogston in a directorial capacity.  This company was founded in 1825 in Aberdeen and transacted business in the areas of shipping, fire and life.  The laird of Ardoe was a director from at least 1876 until 1888. 

The North of Scotland Banking Company was incorporated in 1836 and in 1882 became a limited liability company.  It remained an independent entity until it merged with its main competitor in the North of Scotland, the Town and County Bank, in 1907.  Several members of the Ogston clan were associated with one or both of these banks, or with their merged successor.  AM Ogston’s father, Alexander (1899) was a member of the North of Scotland Banking Company between 1860 and his death in 1869.  An 1878 listing of the members of the company showed the extent of Ogston family membership.  “Jane Ogston or Cowan, North St Swithin Street, Aberdeen in trust for her pupil son Francis Ogston Cowan.  Rev Henry Cowan BD North St Swithin Street, Aberdeen.  Alexander Milne Ogston of Ardoe, manufacturer in Aberdeen, Alexander Ogston Gill painter Aberdeen and James Elsmie shipowner Aberdeen trustees under the antenuptial contract of marriage between William Reid Merchant in Aberdeen and Helen Ogston or Reid his wife both now deceased.  Alexander Ogston MD Aberdeen.  Francis Ogston Aberdeen, Professor of Medical Jurisprudence.  Francis Ogston jun MD 156 Union Street.  James Ogston of Norwood”.  Professor Francis Ogston, AM Ogston’s uncle was a director of the North of Scotland Banking Company between 1858 and his death in 1887.  At the time of the merger in 1907, both AM Ogston’s brother James and his cousin Alexander (1844) were directors of the North of Scotland Bank.  The Aberdeen Town & County Banking Company was formed in 1825 and was incorporated in 1862, becoming a limited liability company in 1882.  Alexander Ogston (1799) was a member of the bank at least from 1854 to his death in 1869.  A membership list from 1875 shows, as with its rival Aberdeen bank, a substantial involvement by Ogston family members.  “Alexander Milne Ogston of Ardoe, manufacturer in Aberdeen, Alexander Ogston Gill, painter, Aberdeen and James Emslie shipowner, Aberdeen, trustees under the ante-nuptial contract of marriage between William Reid, merchant in Aberdeen and Helen Ogston or Reid his wife both now deceased, Alexander Ogston MD Aberdeen, Francis Ogston MD Professor of Medical Jurisprudence University of Aberdeen”.  Alexander Milne Ogston was elected a director of the company at its 1871 AGM, but it is not clear if he had served as a director at an earlier date.  He continued as a director until the merger in in 1907 with the North of Scotland Bank.  At the last AGM of the company under its old constitution in 1908 it announced a dividend of 12½%.  The name adopted for the merged banking entity was the North of Scotland and Town and County Bank Ltd and three Ogstons, Alexander Milne (1836), Professor Alexander (1844) and James (1845) were all directors.  In 1922, they were all still board members and the fee for services on the Board was fixed at 3,500 gns.

About 15% of present-day Canadians claim Scottish ancestry and there has been substantial emigration of Scots in the past, especially during the 19^th century.  Many of these emigrants were farmers or crofters and, especially after the opening up of the prairie provinces by the development of the railways, there was a major need for emigrants to farm the land.  In turn, the farmers needed access to capital.  The North of Scotland Canadian Mortgage Company was incorporated in 1876 and raised capital in Scotland to lend to emigrant farmers in Canada.  Capital was provided in the form of a mortgage.  Alexander Milne Ogston joined the board of the company in 1883 and was chairman between1907 and 1924 when he retired from the chairmanship through failing health.  In 1912 the directors’ fees were fixed at £1,000 per annum for the ordinary directors.   “His fellow-directors would have been much pleased if Mr Ogston had seen his way to continue in the chair, but his eyesight has been troubling him lately, and he felt himself unable longer to fulfil the duties of the office. He remains, however, a member of the board …”.  However, he resigned from the Board the following year.  Throughout the period of Alexander Milne Ogston’s chairmanship, the company was very profitable, which attracted other Scottish companies to this lucrative market. 

The Scottish Northern Investment Trust was established in 1908 and AM Ogston was a member of its board from its inception.  An investment trust is a vehicle for raising finance to invest in a variety of assets and is set up as a company limited by shares.  It allows an investor to spread risk by buying into a portfolio.  The laird of Ardoe remained a director until his resignation in 1926, when his eldest son, Alexander Gordon Ogston was assumed in his place.  Two years after the establishment of the Scottish Northern Investment Trust, another, similar company, the Second Scottish Northern Investment Trust Ltd was inaugurated and again AM Ogston was a director.  He remained in this role until 1925 when he resigned and was replaced by his son, AG Ogston.

 

 The marriage of James Ogston (1845)

James Ogston married Anne Leslie Jamieson at St Paul’s Episcopal church, Loch Street in 1875, when he was 30 and she had attained the age of 26.  Anne was the eldest daughter of the late George Jamieson, who owned a jewellery business of great antiquity in Aberdeen.  A descendant business, Jamieson and Carry, still trades there today.  There were the usual ostentatious celebrations as befitted the joining of members of two such prominent Aberdeen families.  The Aberdeen Soap and Candle Works were decorated with flags and in the evening more than 150 workmen were entertained to supper in the Music Hall. The managers of the works and a few friends were treated more royally.  They dined together at Lockhart and Salmond’s restaurant.  There were also rejoicings and celebrations at Norwood and at Drumgarth, the Jamieson family home.  But the marriage, which had promised so much, proved to be barren and no children were born.  Interestingly, in relation to James Ogston’s fascination with the fine arts (see below), he commissioned a bust of his wife by the noted Scottish sculptor, William Brodie (1815 – 1881) about 1878.  It was exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy exhibition in that year.

 

Mrs Anne Ogston, nee Jamieson, (1849)

In those Victorian days, a married lady did not contemplate a career; her place was in the home with the children.  But what if there were no children and the husband was wealthy?  This must have been the dilemma faced by Anne Ogston when, perhaps after about five years of marriage, maybe she entertained doubts that she would ever have a family?  How would she spend her time in useful and/or interesting pursuits?  Childless ladies in wealthy circumstances did not usually pursue professional or business activities.  One duty she had to fulfil was to be a decorative accessory when James was out and about on civic, public or social occasions and this she did, perhaps strikingly.  In 1896, the Ogstons of Norwood threw an “At Home” following that year’s edition of the Wapinschaw and Mrs Anne Ogston was recorded as being vividly attired in "black and heliotrope".  But she also carved out a set of diversions of her own.  She was a breeder of Skye terriers and in 1884 she won a first prize at the Aberdeen Cat and Dog Show.  Anne Ogston was also very active in charitable work, especially involving the sick, children and war work during the interval 1914 – 1919.  She was a regular donor, in her own right, to the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Royal Aberdeen Hospital for Sick Children and the Poor Children's Dinner Appeal.  Mrs James Ogston, no doubt influenced by her husband’s involvement with the military, also donated to the National Aid Society for Sick and Wounded Soldiers in Soudan and Egypt in 1885, through its Aberdeen Ladies’ Branch.  In 1887, a Volunteer Bazaar was held in the Music Hall in support of the Aberdeen Artillery Volunteers (her husband’s unit), the Aberdeen Engineer Volunteers and the 1st Volunteer Battalion Gordon Highlanders.  Mrs Ogston of Norwood was one of a group of powerful and influential lady patrons and she also had charge of a stall, as did Mrs AM Ogston of Ardoe.  As time went on, Mrs Anne Ogston started to attend events without the presence of her husband.  At the launch of the ss Oithona from Hall Russell’s yard in 1887, Mrs Ogston was present but there was no mention of her husband in the Aberdeen Journal report of the event.  In 1908, “Mrs Ogston, Kildrummy and party” were present at a garden party to celebrate the majority of Lieutenant Grant of Druminor.  Similarly, she appeared without James at the Braemar Gathering in 1911. She even appeared to attend the funeral in 1913 of Mr TF Jamieson of Ellon (presumably a relative) unaccompanied.

During WW1 Anne Ogston was particularly active on Upper Donside in organising ladies’ working parties to help the war effort.  In November 1914, the ladies of Kildrummy met to organise their activities and Mrs Ogston was appointed honorary president of the executive committee.  She also made money donations and gifts in kind to a variety of charitable bodies connected with the relief of the impact of the war, including Comforts for Indian troops, the 1^st Scottish General Hospital, Prisoners in Germany Fund, the Scottish Women’s Hospital in Serbia and War Relief Funds.  Mrs Ogston and the Kildrummy ladies manufactured multiple mufflers and pairs of gloves.

After the end of WW1, Mrs Ogston seemed to have difficulty attracting staff to work for her at Kildrummy New Castle, repeated advertisements for servants appearing in the local press.  Also, with the ending of the war, the attraction of the remoteness of Upper Donside waned and the prospect of winter weather seemed to bear heavily upon her thoughts. The day after the Armistice was signed, 12 November 1918, the following notice appeared in the Aberdeen Journal.  “Wanted furnished house West End for winter months.  Reply Mrs Ogston, Kildrummy, Mossat”.  However, by June 1919, the Ogstons of Kildrummy had bought a grand townhouse in Aberdeen, 27 Albyn Place, which was modified before they took up residence.  At least with this base, Anne Ogston could reconnect with St Paul’s church, her family’s traditional place of worship.  She even consented to perform the official opening of a sale of work there in December 1923.

Anne Leslie Ogston died on 17 March 1927 at 27 Albyn Place.  A little over a week later, the minister of St Paul’s church, Rev Harry Allen, made a moving reference to her passing.  “On Thursday last, by the hand of death, this congregation lost its oldest living member. St Paul's Church has nurtured in the past 200 years many of the best-known families in Aberdeenshire. Annie Leslie Ogston was a member of a family which had worshipped in this church for well-nigh a hundred years or more. Her parents before her were members, and when a child, Mrs Ogston was baptised in St Paul's. She was also married here, and it was her expressed wish that she should be buried from this church. It is seldom nowadays that such old traditions in Church membership are heard of, and we are therefore the more sorry to see them broken”.  There was an impressive service at St Paul’s then Anne Ogston was buried, not at Kildrummy, but at Banchory-Devenick.  There was a generous floral tribute from her husband, James Ogston.  “… a handsome wreath in the shape of a cross composed of lilies, carnations, crocuses, and fern, “In loving remembrance from James"”.  If the couple had had their differences in the past, these were put aside at the end of their long marriage.

27 Albyn Place

 

Norwood Hall ghost stories

Returning to Norwood Hall, the home of James Ogston and his wife Anne Jamieson between their marriage in 1875 and the move to Kildrummy in 1902, ghost stories there are even more exotic than across the river at Ardoe.  The present Norwood hotel’s website gives the rumour succinctly.  “Norwood Hall Hotel is said to have 3 ghosts whose apparitions have been seen on several occasions.  One is said to be that of James Ogston (a previous owner), his wife and his mistress.  It is believed that James originally purchased Norwood in 1872 and rebuilt it in 1881 for his mistress so they could meet while he lived in Ardoe House across the river with his young family.  After years of torment, his wife and mistress wanted James to leave the other, but James refused.  It is said that Norwood is now haunted by the two lovers and his vengeful wife who longs for revenge for the torrid years she had to endure”.  Some aspects of this tale are fanciful.  James Ogston and Anne Jamieson had no children, nor was James ever recorded by any disinterested source, as living across the river at Ardoe.  Only one fact has emerged which might give credence to the basic claim of the story, ie that James Ogston had both a lover and a wife.  When James Ogston had Norwood Hall remodelled in 1881, a decorative emblem was added to the front of the house consisting of three intertwined letters, J,C and O.  Who do the letters represent?  The full names of the proprietor and his wife were “James Ogston” and “Anne Leslie Jamieson”.  Does “J” stand for “James” or “Jamieson”?  “O” surely stands for “Ogston”, but what of “C”?  Was this the initial letter in the name of the lover?

 

Norwood Hall, Cults and New Kildrummy Castle

Norwood Hall

James Ogston (1845), the much younger brother and junior partner in the firm of A Ogston & Sons, also had aspirations to own a grand dwelling to flaunt his status.  He lived in the parental town house at 9 Golden Square until 1871 - 1872, when he bought the property called Norwood Hall, surrounded by about 7 acres of grounds, located in the settlement of Cults on the north bank of the river Dee, approximately opposite Ardoe, which lies on the south bank.  Norwood stands on a site originally occupied by Pitfodels Castle.  The house was built in 1861 but James Ogston extensively remodelled it in 1881 and lived there until 1898.  The architect for this upgrade was J Russell Mackenzie who had previously been articled to James Matthews of the Mackenzie and Matthews practice, though it is thought that JR Mackenzie was not a relative of Alexander Marshall McKenzie.  James Ogston subsequently bought a much larger property, the Kildrummy estate, containing the historically important Kildrummy Castle and a small shooting lodge, in the Upper Donside district about 40 miles west of Aberdeen.  The estate was acquired from the Wardhouse branch of the Gordon family in 1898.  The Kildrummy estate, which was described in the press as a "fine agricultural and sporting estate", had been in the hands of the Gordons for 167 years.  This family was in the sherry trade in Spain and Kildrummy was sold to clear family death duties.  Norwood Hall was retained by James Ogston until late 1899.  On his accession to Kildrummy, he immediately commissioned A Marshall McKenzie to design a new mansion house for the Donside estate, to be rendered in cream-coloured freestone from the same estate quarry that provided material for Kildrummy Castle.  The shooting lodge was demolished.  (Freestone is a rock which is not layered into strata and can be split in any direction).  The new mansion was grandly titled “Kildrummy New Castle”.  James Ogston, at the same time, stabilised and partly rebuilt the ruins of the original Kildrummy Castle.  New Kildrummy Castle was designed in the Elizabethan style and in March 1899, Mr Smith the builder of Kintore, who had been contracted for the stonework at Kildrummy, advertised for “Ten good freestone hewers”.  A dam was built to provide water to power a turbine driving a dynamo to light the house and new carriage drives with a bridge, styled on the historic Brig of Balgownie in Old Aberdeen, were included in the project.  James Ogston threw a banquet in the Kildrummy Volunteers Hall for the existing tenantry of the estate in August 1899 and his plans for the estate impressed the Aberdeen Journal.  “Although it is only a short time since Mr Ogston purchased the estate, he has already set about carrying out a large number of improvements on the property, and, with his well-known business capacity, there is little doubt that a prosperous future is in store for it”.  The house was completed in 1901 and the quarry from which the freestone had been hewed was turned into a rock garden.

New Kildrummy Castle

It is clear that in the last years of Gordon occupation, the Kildrummy estate had been neglected and liberties had been taken by the denizens of Upper Donside by encroaching on the land.  After James Ogston became the owner of the estate, he had a number of tussles with trespassers in seeking to establish his proprietorial rights.  The Upper Donside Road Trust had for a period of 20 years been dumping waste from its Ardhuncart quarry on Kildrummy estate land.  James Ogston wanted to put a stop to this practice, and he offered an alternative site for the spoil, but the Road Trust objected that it would cost them at least £20 per year to use the alternative site!  Local people had also been used to having access to the land around the old Kildrummy Castle but now they were required to seek permission first.  Not everyone entering the KIldrummy land did so and Hugh Kennedy, James Ogston’s factor was instructed to turn unapproved visitors off the land.  In 1901 he had confronted three Kemnay Quarry workers who abused and struck him when asked to leave.  The assailants were arraigned at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where two of them were fined for their part in the assault.  In 1907, two vagrants were discovered camping in a wood at Kildrummy without consent.  They too were fined, 5/- each.  Poaching was also an occasional problem.  On one laughable occasion in 1905, a farm servant named Douglas Tocher was charged with trespassing in pursuit of game by James Ogston.  He had been caught on Ogston’s land in possession of a gun and a lurcher.  He claimed he was there “scaring crows”! The verdict was “not proven”!  In September 1920, four farm servants were charged with trespassing in pursuit of game and found guilty.  They were ordered to pay 14s 9d each as their shares of the expenses of the prosecution and were also fined 5s each.  Sheriff Young remarked, “That will be 10s to the poor of the parish of Towie”. This was a reference to Section 7 of the Game (Scotland) Act, 1832, under which every penalty and forfeiture for any offence against the Act has to be paid to the moderator or other office-bearer of the kirk session of the parish where the offence was committed for the use and benefit of the poor of the parish.

Kildrummy Castle 1901

 

James Ogston (1845) and agriculture

The limited amount of land surrounding Norwood Hall appears to have been used by James Ogston to run a small herd of sheep.  He was recorded buying an aged tup in 1877 and another such animal two years later.  James attended the Royal Northern Agricultural Society Show in 1891 and two years later was admitted as a member of the Society.  However, the purchase of the Kildrummy estate by James Ogston in 1898 greatly increased his scope for dabbling in farming.  Though much of the land at Kildrummy was let to tenants, he built up his own herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle.  This was a regular pastime for wealthy Aberdeenshire landed proprietors, often done as much for the prestige of winning in the showring as for making money from their land holdings.  In the period after 1910, James was an active buyer of quality black polled cattle.  His animals were usually entered in the annual Upper Donside Show, held at Kildrummy, where he had become president by 1915 and he was often a prize winner.  In 1919, the supreme championship for cattle at Kildrummy was won by James Ogston with a Ballindalloch-bred Trojan-Erica sire.  Cattle from the Ballindalloch herd were probably the most sought after in Scotland at this time.  An annual sale of Aberdeen Angus cattle was held in Aberdeen each year and at the 1921 sale, of the 408 bulls entered for sale, eight came from James Ogston’s herd.  At the 1927 Aberdeen black cattle show, James Ogston bought a bull, “Justice” from farmer Charles McCombie of Guise, Alford, a relative of William McCombie one of the two most famous originators of the breed.  Like his brother, Alexander Milne Ogston, James was playing the part of the country laird.

 

James Ogston (1845) and fine art

Wealth derived from the soap and candle manufacturing business in Aberdeen also allowed James Ogston to indulge his interest in fine art.  Indeed, he was possibly even more addicted to this hobby of the rich than his brother at Ardoe.  The first indications of this passion came in 1888 when James Ogston attended the Aberdeen Artists’ conversazione, mixing with the “large and fashionable” company.  His first detected painting purchase also occurred that year when he bought "Whins in bloom" by Aberdeen artist, George Reid (1841 – 1913).  Reid was later knighted and became the president of the Royal Scottish Academy.  Many of his works were commissioned portraits but he was also an accomplished landscape painter and “Whins in bloom” is praised in the Wikipedia article dealing with his work as combining “great breadth with fine detail”.  By 1892, James Ogston was a member of the Selection Committee and was also loaning works from his own collection for display at the annual Aberdeen Artists’ Society exhibition.  That year his painting "Home of the Guillemots by Peter Graham RA (1836 – 1921) was on show.  The late 19^th century was a time of great interest in all things Scottish and especially Highland, including art works depicting dramatic rural scenes and James Ogston indulged himself with examples of this genre.  James Ogston’s rise to prominence in the society of the Aberdeen artistic cognoscenti continued when he became chairman of the Selection Committee in 1893.  By this year he owned a number of paintings by other nationally prominent artists such as Lawrence Alma Tadema, Colin Hunter and James Cassie.  From 1895, James Ogston and his wife received invitations from the President of the Royal Academy to attend the private view of the annual RA show in London and also to be present at the following banquet.  James Ogston owned “The Bracelet” by Pre-Raphaelite painter, Lord Frederic Leighton (1830 – 1896).  This painting was lent to the Royal Academy for display at their 1896 retrospective of Lord Leighton’s work.  Two years later, James Ogston also made a contribution to the 1898 Royal Academy exhibition of the work of Sir John Millais, another prominent Pre-Raphaelite, by lending "The Proscribed Royalist" and "The Moon is up, and yet it is not Night".

James Ogston’s art collection was recognised by Aberdeen Town Council as containing "some of the finest pictures in the district", when he was proposed by Lord Provost Flemming for membership of the Council’s Art Gallery and Museum Committee in 1902.  This nomination was agreed unanimously.  Also, that year both James Ogston and his brother, Alexander, were appointed Vice-Presidents of the Aberdeen Artists’ Society.  The president was Lord Huntly, the financially compromised Aboyne laird.  Nobility apparently still trumped new money!

James Ogston’s voracious collecting continued with the purchase of "The Awakening of Adonis by JW Waterhouse, yet another prominent Pre-Raphaelite.  Other paintings acquired over the next decade included “Woodland Scene” by Alexander Fraser RSA, La Thangue's "Selling Oranges in Liguria", "Reflections" and "Trouble", both by W Q Orchardson and "Waiting" by Sir Luke Fildes.  The laird of Kildrummy also commissioned a portrait of himself by William Quiller Orchardson (1832 – 1910), the noted portraitist in 1902.  The Aberdeen Journal spotted Orchardson’s arrival in the city.  "Mr WQ Orchardson, RA, and Miss Orchardson arrived at the Palace Hotel, Aberdeen, yesterday, and left by the 3.4 afternoon north train en route, it is understood, to Kildrummy Castle, the handsome Donside residence of Colonel James Ogston, VD.  The eminent artist's visit there, it is believed, is for the purpose of painting that gentleman's portrait.  Mr Orchardson, who has acquired world-wide fame as a painter of subject pictures and portraits, is especially known in Aberdeen as the painter of the splendid portrait of Sir David Stewart of Banchory, the picture, reminiscent of the days when Sir David was Lord Provost of the city, having a prominent place in the Townhall".

The Awakening of Adonis JW Waterhouse

Thus, James Ogston’s fascination with, and indulgence in, fine art continued to the end of his life.  He helped in the management of the Art Gallery and the annual Aberdeen Artists’ Society exhibition. He lent pictures from his collection, he mixed with the great and the good in London at the annual RSA show and, as a trustee of the Macdonald bequest, he advised on the purchase of pictures for the Town Council collection.  In 1913, James Ogston donated "A scene in Arran" by William Dyce to Aberdeen Art Gallery, believing that Dyce, a native of Aberdeen but operating in London circles, should be present in the local Art Gallery.  Dyce was an early supporter of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.  James Ogston was still a Vice-President of the Aberdeen Artists’ Society in 1929, serving alongside the President, Joseph Farquharson, and attended the private view of the Society’s exhibition of that year.  James died at his Aberdeen townhouse in 1931.

"A Scene in Arran" by William Dyce

 

James Ogston (1845) and charity

The laird of Kildrummy was generous in donating to charitable causes but did not spread his largesse as widely as his brother, the laird of Ardoe.  Apart from occasional local donations on Donside, such as to the prize fund of the Lonach Gathering in 1913 and the Kildrummy picnic in 1927, his benefactions were concentrated in the areas of saving life, supporting local hospitals and contributing to the civilian efforts during WW1.  In addition to small annual donations, he was a regular contributor of capital sums for medical building works.  In 1887, he gave £200 (matching his brother) to the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary Building Fund, in 1897 another £20 was sent to the same ARI fund and in 1910, £100 was donated towards the construction of the Royal Aberdeen Children’s’ Hospital, via the King Edward Memorial Hospital Building Fund.  At the end of the 1920s it was realised that the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary could not continue expanding on its then present site at Woolmanhill near the centre of town and it was proposed to build an entirely new hospital at Foresterhill.  Lord Provost Lewis led the appeal for the £400,000 (about £27 million in 2021 money) needed for construction and James Ogston donated a total of £1,000, in two tranches of £500.  The appeal took less than two years to reach its target.  Towards the end of his life, James Ogston was also responsible for several notable acts of generosity within his local community on Upper Donside.  He funded a new village hall, which was then officially opened and used to entertain his tenantry to dinner in 1928.  The hall was a generous gesture to acknowledge the address which the locals had presented to him on the occasion of his golden wedding anniversary in 1925.  Also in 1928, James Ogston, along with the other two major local landed proprietors, Lord Forbes and Mr Alan M’Lean, funded the Kildrummy Hot Dinners scheme for local schoolchildren, which provided those attending the school with a daily hot meal throughout the winter months.  In that year, 5,284 dinners were served and that number had increased to 6,005 the following year.  It seemed that James Ogston, the laird of Kildrummy, took genuine pleasure from promoting the well-being of his local community.

 

James Ogston (1845) and the church

As a heritor of two parishes on Donside, Kildrummy and Towie, James Ogston played his obligatory role in church affairs, such as the selection, ordination and induction of a new minister for Kildrummy in 1910 but, unlike his brother Alexander, he did not appear to be a deeply religious person and was not involved in church politics, though at one time he was treasurer and a manager at St Paul’s Episcopal church, where he was married, and which was located near to the Soap and Candle Works.

 

James Ogston (1845) and civic events

As a partner in one of Aberdeen’s most successful manufacturing businesses, James Ogston was a “weel kent” face around the city and he seemed to revel in attending civic occasions.  One of his pass-times outwith business was the development of his estate at Kildrummy.  He was a member of Aberdeen Royal Horticultural Society, and he enjoyed the pomp surrounding the annual show, which in 1883 was opened by local MP Dr Robert Farquharson.  James Ogston was a member of the platform party and two years later he agreed to become an honorary director of the Society.  The same year he donated two prizes of £2 and £1, to be competed for at the summer show.  In 1910, James Ogston became a member at the Aberdeen Branch meeting of the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society, when it met at Marischal College.  He was able to welcome members of the Society to his estate at Kildrummy in September 1927, no doubt to see the impact that his planting had had on the appearance of the estate.  This was a difficult year for James Ogston.  He had himself been seriously ill during the early part of the year and his wife had died in March.  Even at the time of the arboriculturalists’ visit his nephew General Charles Ogston had to substitute for him during most of the event.  This was also the time that Sir Harry Lauder was a guest at Kildrummy New Castle.  The tree specialists were led by John Michie the then retired former head forester at Balmoral and the party also contained Professor Albert Borthwick, the recently appointed foundation professor in the Department of Forestry at Aberdeen University, who was providing data on tree growth at Kildrummy to the Forestry Commission.  

Arboticultural Society visit to Kildrummy 1927

Formal civic events also appealed to James Ogston’s sense of occasion, such as the conferment of the freedom of the city on prominent individuals.  He was present at the ceremonies for Lord Aberdeen and Sir Richard Cross in1883, Andrew Carnegie in 1892 and Lord Strathcona in 1902.  Similarly, James was present at the civic dinner to Lord Aberdeen in 1893 on his appointment as Governor-General of Canada and again in 1898 on the return of Lord and Lady Aberdeen from across the Atlantic.  He also attended the cake and wine party given by the Lord Provost to celebrate Queen Victoria’s birthday in 1900.  Similarly in 1915, when Lord Aberdeen and his wife returned from service in the Viceroyalty of Ireland, there was another civic celebration of the homecoming, with both James and Alexander Milne Ogston in attendance.

James Ogston had a lifelong interest in military matters (see below) and any military event naturally attracted his presence, as a moth to a candle.  In 1874 he attended a ball at the Royal Northern Club given in honour of the visit of the Channel Fleet to Aberdeen.  Eighteen ninety-eight saw another significant naval visitation when the Sheerness-Chatham flotilla of torpedo-boat destroyers arrived in the city and the Town Council, with the Harbour Commissioners, entertained the officers to lunch.  James Ogston was a guest of the Town Council.  The merchant fleet was another enduring attraction.  In 1886, James Ogston embarked on the trial trip of the ss Birkhall of the Grampian Steam Ship Company, which had just undergone overhaul and repairs.  In March 1895, the ss Norwood, named after James Ogston’s mansion, was launched from Hall Russell’s yard at Footdee and the vessel was named by Mrs Ogston.  This vessel was commissioned by the Aberdeen, Newcastle and Hull Steam Company, of which James Ogston was the chairman at the time.  He was also present on the vessel the following month when it underwent its sea trials.  The launch of the ss Salamis for the Aberdeen Line in 1899 also attracted the presence of James and Anne Ogston.  Perhaps feeling that his status required him to leave a more permanent mark on his native city, in 1892 James Ogston presented it with an ornamental iron fountainabout 6ft in height,  which was erected on a triangular piece of ground at the western end of the Public Library.  Sadly, it no longer resides in this location and its present whereabouts have not been discovered.

James Ogston’s growing wealth and his profile as a partner in a major Aberdeen employer, as with his brother Alexander, brought a public prominence and a requirement to be present at major public events.  Interestingly, James showed a marked affinity for attendance at the funerals of prominent Aberdeen citizens, especially those of fellow industrialists, advocates and former Lords Provost.  As with his attendance at political events, his presence at funerals and the likes in Aberdeen declined quickly during the early part of the 20^th century.  Kildrummy was about 40 miles distant from the county town of Aberdeenshire, about a three-hour carriage drive, though he later acquired an Aberdeen townhouse.

 

James Ogston (1845) and Upper Donside

Major landed proprietors, as in the case of his elder brother, were more or less required to play a strong role in the affairs of his local community.  Immediately upon his accession to the Kildrummy lands, James Ogston became a member of the Upper Donside Agricultural Association and donated a silver cup, the Kildrummy Cup, to be competed for in the cattle sections at the annual show.  At the 1904 show, Anne Ogston won 1^st prize (14 entries) in the fresh butter competition.  She enjoyed another notable success in 1911 when she came first in the spinning competition held at the Donside Arts and Crafts Exhibition at Kildrummy.  There were also events laid on for the estate tenants, such as a Harvest Home held in late October in 1904 (harvests were late in these upland areas) in a barn on the Home Farm.  On this occasion, James Ogston was unavoidably absent from home and his factor, Mr Taylor substituted for him as chairman.  An annual tenantry dance was held in winter.  Another annual tenantry event was the Farmers’ Hunt, when the tenant farmers and their friends turned up for a day’s sport.  In 1905, “30 guns and many beaters” assembled at the farm of Wester Clova.  Mrs Ogston played her part by providing lunch.  The bag for the day was “1 stag, 17 roe, 59 white hares 39 brown hares, 129 rabbits, 1 fox (shot by Col Ogston), 6 blackcock, 4 pigeon, 1 partridge”, indeed, almost anything that moved.  Although individuals were often refused permission to hold a picnic in the grounds around Old Kildrummy Castle, one annual event was always accommodated, the annual Kildrummy picnic for the enjoyment of local kids and their parents.  The 1920 event was reported in the Aberdeen Journal.  “Under favourable conditions the Kildrummy parish picnic was held in the Old Castle grounds on Saturday. The children headed by Pipers Forbes and Murdoch, marched to the grounds. A programme of games arranged by the teachers was carried out. During the afternoon a large dancing board was well patronised. Mr and Mrs Ogston, The Castle, visited the picnic during the afternoon, and in a short speech to the children and their parents Mr Ogston expressed the great pleasure it gave him to have them all there annually for their picnic”.

James Ogston never became a county councillor, though he stood on at least one occasion.  However, shortly after moving to Kildrummy, probably in 1899, he was elected to the Kildrummy Parish Council and became its chairman.  This route gave him access to membership of the County Council’s Alford District Committee and an entrée to the decision-making process for Upper Donside.  He was first recorded in the local press as attending this committee in 1903.  The state of the roads was always a major issue in rural Aberdeenshire and James Ogston’s first intervention was to propose that the 14-year-old stone breaking machine used to prepare road metal locally be sold and a new one procured.  His motion carried unanimously, and he was installed as the convener of the implementation sub-committee.  The same year he also presided at a meeting of the Alford District Committee.  Matters pertaining to the roads in the district were an almost constant theme for discussion.  The early years of the 20^th century were a time of rapid growth of motor traffic and for someone in the position of James Ogston who had a landed property in rural Aberdeenshire but needed to travel frequently into the city, the proposal of the County Council in 1910 to limit the speed of motor traffic in certain areas to 10mph was very unwelcome and he was an unsurprising objector to this proposal.  At a further meeting of the Alford District Committee in 1914 he returned to his concerns with the state of the roads, objecting strongly to the slow rate of progress in improving the main road to Alford from Aberdeen.  The last detected attendance by James Ogston at the Alford District Committee was in 1921.  The laird of Kildrummy was also recorded as a Justice of the Peace for Aberdeenshire in both 1885 and 1899 but was not a very active member of the Bench.  Similarly, he was an occasional member of the Kildrummy School Board.

 

James Ogston (1845) and sport 

Although he was the proprietor of a large country estate, sport did not seem to play a major role in James Ogston’s leisure activities.  Occasionally in the 1890s he was reported as playing for the Aberdeen Curling Club, but it was clearly not a significant winter distraction.  The Kildrummy estate enjoyed fishing rights along six miles of the upper river Don, where it passed through James Ogston’s property, and he fished his own waters each season but was never recorded as making particularly remarkable catches.  Kildrummy did not seem to host a large salmon population, perhaps due to the abstraction of water from the Don downstream by the paper mill at Stoneywood, a voracious consumer of water, and the consequent difficulties experienced by returning salmon in surmounting the dam dykes on the lower reaches.  In 1898, the year before James took up residence, only two fish had been caught on the Kildrummy reaches.  Perhaps his fishing facilities were of more importance for entertaining guests, such as Sir Harry Lauder who stayed at Kildrummy in 1927 and fished there.  Of all the country sports, shooting appeared to be his favourite.  Before he moved from Norwood, which had no shooting, to Kildrummy in 1899, James Ogston usually pursued grouse over the Glenfarquhar moors near Auchenblae on and after the “Glorious 12^th”.  Subsequent to the move, he shot over his own ground, frequently in the company of a friend from the military, such as Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Playfair or Major Yates.  During the 1920s his companion was usually his nephew Colonel Charles Ogston, the second son of Alexander Milne Ogston, who had retired from the Army after a distinguished career.

Sir Harry Lauder fishing at Kildrummy

 

James Ogston (1845) and politics

James Ogston’s political allegiance was never in doubt.  He was a lifelong, passionate supporter of the Conservative Party and that commitment was on public display from at least 1883 when he headed a table at a banquet held for Sir Richard Cross, the MP for South-West Lancashire, who was visiting Aberdeen.  In 1884 Cross was briefly Home Secretary.  This presence at a Conservative Party event set the pattern for his life but, in spite of this strong and unwavering personal commitment, James Ogston never really sought a career as a politician, locally or nationally, though he was rumoured to have been invited to stand in the City of Aberdeen in 1885.  Perhaps, like his brother Alexander, the time commitment would have been too much to be accommodated along with his role in the affairs of A Ogston & Sons?  There were many ways in which James sported his allegiance.  He attended events organised by the Aberdeen Working Men’s Conservative Association, in 1885 he became chairman of the ward committee of the Aberdeen St Nicholas Ward, and he chaired public meetings, such as the address by Lord Iddesleigh, a leading cabinet minister, held in the Music Hall in 1885.  James Ogston also showed unwavering support for the Primrose League an organisation founded in 1883 to spread Conservative principles throughout the country.  It was named after Benjamin Disraeli’s favourite flower. Local Primrose League organisations were called “habitations” and James Ogston and his wife were often in attendance at their events, anywhere in Aberdeen and its environs, though the South Aberdeen Primrose League was perhaps their favourite habitation.  In 1889, James Ogston was elected the Vice-President of the Aberdeen Conservative Association, and this was the year that Liberal Unionists were admitted as members.  Mrs Anne Ogston seemed to be at least as committed as her husband to the Conservative cause and in 1896 she was voted onto the Ladies’ Council of the Primrose League South Aberdeen Habitation.  In 1897, a new club was established in Aberdeen, the Union Club of Aberdeen Ltd, whose aim was "To provide a clubhouse and other conveniences for the use of the Unionist party.  James Ogston was a subscriber, and it was opened by the Marquis of Lorne, Queen Victoria’s son-in-law.  So, this pattern of support for the Conservative party continued though, after his move to Kildrummy in 1899, he was much less in evidence at political events in the North-East, which tended to be centred on the city of Aberdeen.

 

James Ogston (1845) and social events

Social occasions also held a fascination for James and Anne Ogston, especially in the days when they were resident at Norwood.  Of all social events, the ball seemed to have been the favourite in this Aberdeen phase of their lives.  Between 1880 and 1899, the James Ogstons were recorded in the local press as attending 18 balls including, the Aberdeen University Ball, the Aberdeen Gymnastic and Rowing Club Annual Assembly, the Aberdeen Engineers Ball, the Aberdeen Bachelors’ Ball, the Aberdeen County Ball, the Aberdeen Benedicts' Ball, the Aberdeen Artists' Society Fancy Dress Ball and the Royal Northern Club Ball.  These formal dances were usually held in the most capacious venues in Aberdeen, the Music Hall in Union Street and the Albert Hall in Huntly Street and were grand affairs at which ladies could show off their dresses and gentlemen could mix with their peers amongst the great and the good of Aberdeen.  Apart from elegant balls the James Ogstons also attended garden parties, “at-homes”, flower shows, ship launches and Highland gatherings.  After the move to Kildrummy, the focus of their social activities received necessary a reorientation.  The Lonach Gathering, the Donside equivalent of Deeside’s Braemar Gathering, becoming a particular focus, with a party from Kildrummy regularly being in attendance and James Ogston usually contributing to the prize fund.  He was eventually created an honorary vice-president of the Society.

 

James Ogston (1845) and the military

Auxiliary military forces have been a part of British military planning since before the start of the 19^th century but Britain’s involvement in war has on several occasions spurred change in the way such volunteer forces were organised and trained, actual war revealing deficiencies in regular Army manpower.  During the Napoleonic Wars (1803 – 1815) local militias were formed to rectify this problem but were subsequently disbanded.  The next military activity to have a significant influence on the creation of auxiliary military formations was the Crimean War (1853 – 1856), together with growing worries about French militancy.  In 1859, the Volunteer Force, consisting of formations of riflemen, artillery and engineering corps, were created to form a trained manpower reserve in case of further wars.  However, their autonomy was seen as a problem, and they were increasingly integrated with regular Army formations.  The Second Boer War (1899 – 1902), where Volunteer formations saw active service, led to further reforms with the introduction of the Territorial Force in 1908 which was designed to integrate part-time, volunteer corps into the British Army without the need for conscription in time of war.

The Ogston family had a history of support for, and involvement in, the volunteer military forces since the early 19^th century.  In an announcement of commissions in the Local Militia in the Aberdeen Journal in 1811, the appointment of “Alex Ogston Gentleman to be ensign” was announced.  This was most likely to have been Alexander Ogston (1766), the founder of the Loch Street Candle Works, since he was the only prominent Ogston living in Aberdeen at the time.  In 1860, “Mr A Ogston, Candle manufacturer, 84 Loch Street” donated 2gns to the City of Aberdeen Artisan Volunteer Artillery and Rifle Corps.  This Ogston was Alexander Ogston (1799) who was then the head of the Soap and Candle Works.  In 1866, it was announced in the Naval and Military Gazette that “Alexander Ogston Gent to be second Lieut”.  This person was Alexander Milne Ogston (1836) who was 30 years old at the time.  In the same year his younger brother, James, then aged 21, was appointed “1^st Lieut vice P Duguid resigned”.  He had joined the Aberdeen City Rifles as a private in 1864.  Although Alexander Ogston (1836) did not continue his volunteer service for long, he remained a supporter of, and generous donor to, the volunteer military formations for the rest of his life (Rifle Volunteers, Artillery Volunteers and Engineering Volunteers).  Also, his elder son, Alexander Gordon Ogston, was commissioned in the 1^st AVA as a lieutenant in 1898.  For James Ogston (1845), joining the Rifle Volunteers in 1864 was the start of a love affair which resulted in 40 years of service and the achievement of a position of great prominence in the Volunteer movement.  Clearly, his wealth and, later, his lack of a family allowed him this indulgence in the military life, which had great appeal for him.

James Ogston’s rise through the ranks was inexorable.  1864 - Private, Rifle Volunteers, 1866 - 1^st Lieutenant, 6^th Aberdeenshire Volunteer Artillery, 1870 – Captain, 6^th Aberdeenshire Volunteer Artillery, 1880 – Major, 1^st Aberdeen Artillery Volunteers, 1887 - Lieutenant-Colonel, 1^st Aberdeen Artillery Volunteers, 1887 - Honorary Colonel, 1^st Aberdeen Artillery Volunteers. Colonel Youngson was the commander of the 1^st Aberdeen Artillery Volunteers between 1873 and 1893, while Colonel Ogston had the title of Commander of Headquarters Batteries between 1887 and 1893, when he took over command of the 1^st AAV, his title then becoming Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant.  James Ogston was compulsorily retired in 1904 (he was then 59) and replaced by Lieutenant-Colonel G Milne.  Colonel Ogston routinely used his military rank in civilian life, both before and after his retirement.

The stuff of military life in the Aberdeen Artillery Volunteers consisted of a regular diet of drill, inspections, route marches, church parades, an annual carbine competition and practice with their artillery pieces mounted at the Beach Battery, with its adjacent Queen’s Links used both for parades and exercises.  But along with this routine fare was the fun of an annual camp, sometimes taking place at the vast Barry Buddon training area adjacent to Carnoustie near Dundee.  There was also a full programme of social activities, including an annual assembly and ball, and the yearly Wapinschaw (weapon show), when competitions were held with a variety of weaponry, including artillery, with money prizes.  The Volunteers were also paid for their training time.  Colonel James Ogston appears to have been a popular officer, who looked after the interests of the men under his command, while pursuing the relentless goals of maintaining the complement of his unit through active recruitment and high military efficiency from those under his command.  At the annual inspection of the 1^st AVA in 1898, Colonel Ogston made a direct appeal to the spectators present for young men to join the ranks.  This resulted in an additional 35 recruits, almost bringing up the corps’ complement of 645 to full strength.  A good indication of James Ogston’s popularity with his men occurred at the 1^st AVA NCO’s annual supper in 1896 when he was received with “loud and prolonged cheering” when he rose to address his men.  This feeling of respect was reciprocated by James Ogston.  At the corresponding event the following year he was again received “with enthusiasm”.  "He thanked the company for drinking his health so heartilyand for the kind reception they had given his name.  So long as he had the honour to command the regiment, he would endeavour to merit their good opinion".   

Colonel James Ogston

  

The Artillery Volunteers often mustered between 300 and 500 men for a parade or training evening, though the authorised compliment was higher.  (In 1891 it was 647, fully subscribed, with another 53 on the waiting list).  In 1898, the Aberdeen Journal reported on the flourishing state of the 1^st AVA.  "This popular corps which comkes first in the line of defence represented by the Aberdeen Volunteers iis in an exceedingly flourishing condition.  Indeed, it is questionable if any corps in the country stands better financially.  Liberal inducements are held out to the members as recompence for the time they sacrifice to devoting ptoper attention to duty.  Col Ogston will undertake to have the battalion sent to Buddon Camp this year without expense to any of the men.  As to numerical strength the corps is in a very good state especially in view of the fact that recruits must now show increased chest measurement".  But, in spite of this strong leadership of the Artillery Volunteers, its annual programme of activities (actually orders issued in published form by Colonel Ogston) did not always run smoothly.

In 1888, the War Office agreed to increase the weapon complement of the Artillery Volunteers by adding a Field Battery of mobile guns.  But they did not provide for the horses necessary to tow these new weapons to locations where they could be used.  James Ogston’s solution was to approach the Town Council to borrow about 20 horses from their stables for this purpose.  The Town Council readily agreed to the request but asked for a £15 payment for the service.  Colonel Ogston demurred and a compromise figure of £10 was agreed.  The figure also included a horseman with each horse and the Council employees selected were enrolled in the Volunteers.  In 1890, the unit provided a gun carriage to transport the coffin of Lieutenant-Colonel Firebrace of the Royal Artillery.  Route marches were a regular feature of the Volunteers’ diet of activities and in July 1897, Colonel Ogston asked the Cleansing Committee of the Town Council for the loan of horses to pull the artillery pieces on a forthcoming march.  This set the committee worrying about insurance for its animals, but James Ogston overcame this obstacle by giving his assurance that any loss would be met personally by him.  Such was his status that this informal undertaking was accepted.  

In July 1889, the 1^st Aberdeen Artillery Volunteers held a camp at Portlethen, just south of Aberdeen.  Before a start was made Col Ogston addressed the batteries and referred to some dissatisfaction in the rsnks, of which he had become aware, concerning the non-distribution of the prizes gained at the recent Wapinschaw.  The cause of this dissent was that several of the outlying batteries had entered a protest against the decisions made, on the grounds that the same umpire had not been in attendance on each of the three days on which the competition took place.  James Ogston thouyght that the protest was unreasonable, and he took the risk of paying over the money to the winners at the camp on Saturday, which he could afford to do.  The announcement was received with applause by the men. This was not the last time that he would deploy his personal means in the interests of his unit.

By 1889, the 1^st Aberdeen Artillery Volunteers had an active band, which made a public appearance, possibly its first, at the Skene Highland Gathering and Picnic of that year.  Subsequently, requests were made by a variety of bodies for the musicians to perform at events, indicating that the band was musically competent.  Its public performances were too numerous to list but one notable event in which it took part was to play, free of charge, at two fetes held in Duthie Park in 1894 for the benefit of the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.  The band also played at the Braemar Gathering when it was held at Balmoral in 1898, following which Colonel Ogston received a congratulatory telegram.  "To the Officer Commanding Artillery Volunteers, Aberdeen.  Am desired to inform you that the Queen was very pleased with the performance of your band yesterday afternoon at the Gathering.  Strafford, Equerry".    A further cultural development had occurred by 1894 when the 1^st AVA Amateur Dramatic Society put on a performance in the Silver Street Hall, the 1^st AVA’s headquarters, with Colonel Ogston and the other officers as patrons.

The annual camp of the Aberdeen Artillery Volunteers was held at Barry Buddon in July 1892 and Colonel Ogston’s men were involved in a 64-pounder competition against other units encamped there when there was a fatal accident, but not one involving an artillery piece.  During the night following the competition, a gale blew up and there was concern that a large mess tent would collapse, so the order was given to take down its canvass covering.  While this operation was in progress, a large pole snapped and, in falling, dealt a severe blow to the head of Sergeant-Major Davidson of the 1^st AVA.  He was removed to hospital but died two hours later.  Davidson had been a Volunteer for over 20 years and his loss was felt heavily by the unit.  His funeral in Aberdeen six days later was attended by over 300 of his fellow volunteers, uniformed but without swords, led by Colonel James Ogston.  The commanding officer of the 1^st AAV, with his fellow officers, initiated an appeal on behalf of Sergeant Major Davidson’s widow and family, which raised £60.  That was not the end of Ogston’s concern for the family of his late colleague.  On Saturday 22 October, a concert was held under the patronage of Colonel Youngson and Colonel Ogston to supplement those funds, with Ogston presiding for the evening.  The surplus was estimated to be £30.  James Ogston addressed the audience movingly during the evening and the Aberdeen Evening Express reported on his speech.  "The concert he explained had been promoted with the view of augmenting the fund raised on behalf of the widow and family of Sergeant-Major Davidson of the Aberdeen Artillery - (applause) - who met such a sad death last July when he was employed in his military duty at the camp at Barry.  The circumstances attending the sad accident were so well known to them and were so painful that he would rather not allude to them.  (Applause).  The regret and sorrow which had been expressed for him who was so suddenly taken away from them in the very prime of life and the deep sympathy which had been exhibited for his widow and family showed how highly he was esteemed by all who knew him.  (Applause).  As a volunteer those connected with the Aberdeen Artillery knew his energy and enthusiasm in the movement and he was sure he would be missed very much by the company to which he belonged.  (Applause).  Their generous attendance that evening was a good and kind act on behalf of the bereaved widow and family of their late esteemed friend and brother volunteer".  In reflecting on the accident, Colonel James Ogston had realised that it was important for Volunteers to be insured against death and injury while training with the unit and recommended to the men that they take out personal insurance with the Volunteer Service Accident Fund Society.  For a premium of 1/- per year cover of up to £100 for death, £75 for loss of eyesight and £60 for loss of a hand, arm or leg was available.  In 1897 he also established a fund with a donation of £50 for the relief of any member of the corps who might meet with an accident or injury while on duty as a Volunteer.

Barry Buddon training area

The Volunteer Decoration (VD) was introduced in 1892 to reward officers in the Volunteers for long and meritorious service, men qualifying after 20 years of involvement.  In early January 1893, Lieutenant-Colonel and Honorary Colonel James Ogston received his medal along with others who qualified for the award.  At that time Ogston had already completed 26 years as an officer.  Shortly afterwards, Colonel Youngson, who had also been awarded the VD, announced his retirement from command of the 1^st AVA, leaving James Ogston entirely free to shape the future of the unit as he wished. James Ogston was inordinately proud of his VD decoration but unfortunately in June 1893, while taking part in manoeuvres on the Links, the medal became detached from its clasp and was lost.  A search party was then organised to comb the area and it found the missing medal, which was returned to its proud (and probably relieved) owner. Colonel Ogston supported the introduction of a similar distinction for other ranks in the Volunteer service and in 1895 the aim was realised.  He was able to make the first awards of the new honour to NCOs at a ceremony the same year, when he personally pnned the medals on the breasts of qualifying men and expressed his satisfaction that the rank and file had been recognised in a similar way to officers.  James Ogston spoke with feeling about the personal benefits he saw as being derived from membership of the Volunteer units, “… in inculcating a spirit of loyalty and patriotism, in teaching habits of regularity, discipline and self-control and in affording the means of healthful recreation". 

The principal role of the Aberdeen Volunteers was to defend the city in case of attack by an enemy and it was assumed that such an attack, if it were to come, would be by sea.  To impart some realism to training for this hypothetical scenario, the senior officers, including Colonel James Ogston devised an exercise in which the men would be told there would be a surprise parade on an unspecified night in a particular week.  On being called out the men found themselves engaged in mock battles with an invisible enemy.  Such an exercise took place in March 1896, when the 1^st AAV manned the Beach Battery and fired upon an imagined invading force on the beach.  On this occasion James Ogston was unavoidably absent and unable to command his unit, which must have been the cause of great regret.

Beach Battery Aberdeen

All the Volunteer units had access to a firing range at the Broad Hill on the Links but in May 1896 a dispute had arisen over the cost of moving targets from the Broad Hill and re-erecting them at the Seaton Links rifle range which belonged to the 1^st Volunteer Brigade, Gordon Highlanders, for shooting competitions.  The Aberdeen Journal, as usual, reported on the stooshie (dispute).  "At the conclusion of drillon the Links on Tuesday night, Colonel Ogston in a short speech, expressed the regret he felt that, owing to circumstances over which he had no control, the commencement of the shooting had been still further delayed.  The fact was, he said, that last year he had considered the whole question of the targets settled for good, but this year he had again been met with a charge of fully £90 as the corps' proportionate share of the cost of re-erecting the targets at Seaton on their removal from the Broad Hill range.  He considered this sum exhorbitant for the work done, and he was sure that anyone who had a knowledge of the work would bear out what he said.  He had offered to refer the matter to arbitration, but that had been refused and, although he was quite willing to pay the money for the benefit of his own corps, he strongly objected to being muleted (cheated or swindled) in a sum which he did not consider to be chargeable".   This led to one of the Volunteers writing a letter of complaint to the press, making the matter public.  James Ogston was a man of firm resolve and his resistance to coughing up the sum demanded brought its reward when he was able to resolve the matter “amicably”, presumably by negotiating down the sum to be charged.

 

The Aberdeen Wapinschaw

Wapinschaws were introduced in Scotland in the 15^th century to discover what arms citizens held, if they were well maintained and whether the citizenry was proficient in their use.  The first Wapinschaw in Aberdeen dates from 1496.but the origin of the modern, three-day competitive meeting of gun enthusiasts began in 1862 and included competitions for carbines, rifles and artillery pieces, the latter firing at floating offshore targets.  The event was organised by the Aberdeenshire Volunteer Artillery and Rifle Association and the event was held on the Old Town Links.  From the time of the 7^th annual Wapinschaw, held in 1868, Alexander Milne Ogston was listed as a subscriber to the event and from 1870 he was joined by his brother, James, a recently promoted, 25-year-old captain in the 6^th Aberdeenshire Volunteer Artillery.  By 1876, Captain Ogston had become involved in the management of the Wapinschaw and the prominence of his involvement progressively increased in succeeding years.  However, in 1898 a serious dispute arose between the 1^st AVA, Colonel Ogston and the Council of the Aberdeenshire Volunteer and Rifle Association,  the organisers of the Wapinschaw. 

It is worth repeating that Colonel Ogston was held in high regard by his men and especially by his NCOs.  An illustration of his concern for the men’s welfare was demonstrated in 1898, when he sent a note to the Sergeants’ Mess of the 1^st AVA, saying that he had decided to present each company sergeant major and sergeant with a patrol jacket and requesting them to get measured for tailoring purposes.  The sergeants of the 1^st AVA then purchased a portrait of Colonel Ogston, a bromide print of a photo by William Lawson, to hang in the mess.  The 1st AVA were well provided for in terms of recreation.  On Thursdays there was a recreation class and on Saturday evenings there was a  dance.  Regimental concerts were held regularly to which Colonel Ogston invited all members free of charge.  It was against this background that a decision taken by the Aberdeenshire Volunteer Artillery and Rifle Association to reduce the prize money awarded to artillery teams at the Wapinschaw went down very badly with the sergeants of the 1^st AVA.  News of their objections reached the ears of the Aberdeen Journal’s editor and he sided with the NCOs, describing the reduction as a mistake.  The main objective of the Wapinschaw, which is not to enable clever shots to win so much prize money but to train and encourage volunteers of all ranks and all branches for the more efficient performance of their duties".   The emphasis at the Wapinschaw had become focussed on the elite rifle shots and downplayed its role in improving the preparedness of all participating Volunteers.  James Ogston sided with his NCOs and made his views known to them.  Ogston’s men were due to start on a route march in late April and he had prepared a speech to make to his men before the start of the exercise on the dispute over prize money at the Wapinschaw.  The route march was cancelled but Colonel Ogston’s speech reached the Aberdeen Journal, which was happy to publish its contents.

"I wish to refer to the unfortunate difference of opinion which has arisen with the Council of the Aberdeenshire Volunteer Aretillery and Rifle Association in regard to the proportion of the prize money allotted to the artillery competitions.  I made a point of attending the annual meeting of this association as I expected, from what had been said in former years , that some proposal might have been made to reduce the prize money in both the artillery and rifle competitions.  Nothing, however, was said on this point at that meeting, but at the first meeting of council, when unfortunately, none of the members representing the artillery were able to present, it was, without any notice of motion having been given, resolved to reduce the money given artillery to £50 - thereby reducing our prize money by some £52 10s and it was remitted to a committee of artillery officers to revise the artillery competitions on this footing; while, on the contrary, in the case of the rifle competitions, it was remitted to their committee to make such alterations and reductions as they might find desirable.  What we complain of is that we were thus not placed in the same position as the Small Arms Committee, and we were not given an opportunity of making our own suggestions in regard to competitions, and I feel sure you will agree with me when I say that a reduction to the extent now given effect would prove fatal to the usefulness of the artillery competitions, and would consequently defeat what is in the constitution of the association stated to be its only object - namely, the furtherance of the efficiency of the corps in the district.  The entry money for artillery competitions amounts to £41 and the prize money is to be £55 (of which £25 is given by the Harbour Commissioners specifically to the Artillery), and the expenditure in connection therewith should not exceed £30.  I hold that the yearly deficiency in the accounts of the association is caused mainly by the excessive expenditute in connection with the small arms competitions.   The sum of £52 paid for range officer, superintendents, and medical officers is, in my opinion, quite unnecessary, as also the item of £25 for an "at home".  I have no difficulty in getting my officers to conduct our competitions free of charge, and the medical officers are always ready to give their services on the same footing, and I have no doubt that the officers of the rifle battalions would act in the same manner if properly requested.  At one of the council meetings Major Miller, Forres, referred to a statement made by me that I brought out a profit on the artillery competition, and wished to know by what method of reasoning I arrived at that conclusion.  My answer is that if it will credit us with the share of the subscriptions and donations to which we are justly entitled, he will arrive at a similar conslusion.  Reference has been made to only nine companies having entered for the artillery compatition, but when I mention that this represents 352 artillerymen taking part in the competitions, it will be seen that the prize money now offered is quite inadequate.  This I have satisfied myself  is a far larger number of men than entered fro any rifle battalion.  What I complain of is that, while the Association benefits a large proportion of Artillerymen, it does not do so to the Riflemen, their competitions being so arranged as to interest chiefly those who make a practice of attending shooting  competitions, and not to improve the efficiency of the mass of the men; and I hold the opinion very strongly that, until the rifle competitions of the association are arranged so as to induce the volunteers in this didtrict to come forward in large numbers, neither will the proficiency7 in rifle shooting progress, nor the association improve.  These are my views of the situation.  What I have done has been done in the interest of the general efficiency of the volunteers; and I feel that in view of the whole position which has been taken up by the council, I shall meet with your approval when I say that I do not intend to enter this corps for the artillery competitions at the forthcoming Wapinschaw".  Lieutenant-Colonel Cruden, on behalf of the Council of the Aberdeenshire Volunteer and Rifle Association, wrote to James Ogston to intimate the appointment of himself and three other officers from the regiment as the executive officers for the artillery competition at the Wapinschaw.  Ogston replied in the following terms.  "Aberdeen 19th April 1898.  Sir, I was yesterday favoured with your letter dated 16th inst.  I am surprised that in view of the position which I gather from the newspapers was taken up by the Council in regard to the proposals made by us, they have appointed either myself or my officers to act as the executive staff to carry out the artillery competitions.  In the circumstances you will please intimate to the council that we do not see our way to act.  This intimation may be made as regards Major Duguid and Captain Duncan as well as myself.  I am Sir your obedient servant, James Ogston".  Cruden then wrote further to Ogston and received the following reply.  "Aberdeen 12th May 1898.  Dear Sir, I have your letter.  The reports that appeared in the newspapers stating that the corps under my command were not to compete in the meeting  of the Aberdeen Volunteer and Rifle Association this year is correct.  I am dear sir yours truly James Ogston, Colonel Commanding".  The artillery competition for that year was then cancelled.  The following year, 1899, James Ogston, along with Major Duguid, Major W Adam and Captain Duncan, withdrew from the Association and resigned their membership of the Council.  Once again, James Ogston had forcibly taken up a principled position and he stuck to his guns!

TheAberdeen Harbour Commissioners, being the principal beneficiaries of the role played by the Artillery Volunteers, traditionally gave £25 peryear to the Aberdeenshire Volunteer Artillery and Rifle Association, to provide prizes for the artillery in competitions at the annual Wapinschaw.  However, the impasse concerning this section of the tournament had not been resolved by the following year, 1899, and the opposing sides then competed to be the recipients of the Harbour Commissioners’ largesse.  Colonel Cruden wrote to the Harbour Board asking them to continue funding aertillery prizes at the Wapinschaw.  Colonel Ogston put in a counterclaim.  "To the Aberdeen Harbour Commissioners.  Headquarters 1st Aberdeen Volunteer Artillery, Aberdeen, 10th February 1899.  Gentlemen, As officer commanding the 1st Aberdeen Volunteer Artillery, I desire to submit to the Aberdeen Harbour Commissioners the following facts:  For many years the commissioners have annually given to the Aberdeenshire Volunteer Artillery and Rifle Association the sum £25 for the encouragement of artillery practice among the volunteers in the northeast of Scotland.  Until last year this sum was added to a like sum of prize money allocated from the funds of the association to an aerillery competition, distinct from the small arms competitions, at the annual Wapinschaw.  Last year in the artillery competitions, the prize money was reduced, and the donation of the commissioners was not added to the sums allocated to these competitions.  Reductions were proposed to such an extent as appeared to me unfair, considering the number of men required to work the guns in competitions, and I therefore determined, after consultation with my officers, not to enter any detachments from my corps for the artillery competitions.  No entries were received from any other artillery corps, and consequently no artillery competitions proper took place.  I do not expect that there will be any such competitions this year.  This being so, I would humbly request that the commissioners would consider, when the matter is agin brought before them this year, whether the grant shouyld be continued in its present form.  For many years past the only detachments who have competed in the Wapinschaw have been drawn almost entirely from my corps, which consists of one position battery and six garrison companies at headquarters, and three garrison companies at Johnshaven, Bervie and Stonehaven.  I would, therefore, humbly suggest to commissioners that they would be encouraging the Volunteer Artillery in this district by granting such sum as they think fit to the corps under my command, in aid of their fund for prize money in place of giving the amount to the association, until the commissioners are satisfied that the assocition will be in a position to conduct artillery competitions on service lines.  I may mention that my corps is up to full strength, and that from headquarter companies alone 20 officers and 400 men out of an authorised establishment of 640 went to camp at Buddon in July of last year, where the competitions for the prize-money available to the corps were carried out under the strictest conditions.  I mention these figures to show you the interest taken in their work by the members of the corps.  I have the honour to remain, Yours faithfully, James Ogston, Colonel Commanding, 1st Aberdeen Volunteer Artillery".  The Harbour Commissioners quickly handed this hot potato to their finance committee for resolution and the decision, in a clear attempt to placate all sides, was to give £10 to the Wapinschaw organisers, £10 to Colonel Ogston and £5 to the training establishment, HMS Clyde, which usually provided men for the competition.  It has not been discovered when or even if the dispute was ever resolved, but the status quo appeared to be maintained during the remainder of James Ogston’s time in command of the 1^st AVA.  In difficult circumstances he had again shown his mettle.

About the time that James Ogston was dissociating himself from the Council of the Aberdeenshire Volunteer and Rifle Association in late 1898, he gave his backing to another association concerned with the armed forces, the Royal Artillery Association and the formation of a local branch in Aberdeen.  It was an organisation whose mission was to help former members gain employment when they left the service.  Colonel Lord GJ Playfair was a backer of the Royal Artillery Association, he having served in the Royal Field Artillery.  The RAA, Aberdeen branch, held its monthly meeting in the Artillery Volunteers headquarters in Silver Street, courtesy of Col Ogston.  It was also in the 1898 season that Lord Playfair became a grouse shooting companion of James Ogston.  Later the same year, in December, the 1^st AVA mounted a Naval and Military Display and Concert in the Aberdeen Music Hall under the patronage of Colonel Lord Playfair and Colonel Ogston.  Clearly Ogston and Playfair had become good friends and probably shared views on many issues.  In 1903, at the annual artillery camp at Barry Buddon, the 1^st AVA won the Playfair Cup for the smartest corps in camp.

 

Military life continues for the 1^st Aberdeen Voluntary Artillery

The report of the executive committee of the Scottish National Artillery Association for 1898 made special mention of the success of the 1sr AVA camp at Budden, under the command of Colonel Ogston.  But, in spite of his status as one of the most successful leaders of a volunteer formation, James Ogston received a disheartening shock in March of the following year.  A drastic order was issued by the Army terminating the careers of the majority of colonels then serving.  After 1st November 1896 all officers appointed to command would in future hold their appointments for four years.  Any extension would depend on the commendation of the General Officer Commanding the Scottish District.  For those appointed before 1st November 1896, his appointment unless already extended, would terminate in 1900 on the day of the month upon which he was gazetted to such appoiontment.  Colonel J Ogston was thus destined to be forced into retirement on 24 June of that year.  He would then have served as commanding officer of the 1st AVA for seven years.  Even though he apparently had only 15 months of service in front of him before being removed from command, James Ogston did not let up in his drive to make 1^st AAV an outstanding body of trained military personnel.  Nor did he spare the Army top brass the benefit of his views on their deficiencies.

In March 1899, Colonel Ogston was a guest at the annual dinner of the 1^st AAV’s NCOs.  In a speech he complained about the behaviour of the War Office with regard to the supply of appliances to learn their drill.  Ten years ago the fort at Torry (the Torry Battery) was mounted with six 68-pounder guns but they were taken away with the intention of replacing them with modern guns, but no replacement had occurred.  There were only four 64-pounder guns at the Beach Battery, and these were certainly not sufficient for 700 men to practice on.  He thought the local authorities should pressure the War Office to rectify the situation.  He described the situation as "simply shameful".  James Ogston also complained about the restrictions which had been placed upon the spending of the capitation grant on prize money.  The corps used to spend about £300 per year but that was now reduced to about £80.

During May 1899, the 1^st AVA held its annual church parade at the St Nicholas kirk.  After the service, 415 men of the battalion, under the command of Colonel Ogston formed up in the Back Wynd, filling the whole street to march back to headquarters with Drum Major Miller in the lead brandishing a massive silver-headed staff, which had been presented to the unit in 1897 by Colonel Ogston to commemorate the Queen’s jubilee.  In June, the annual inspection was held after which the officers were entertained to dinner.  The following month a shooting competition was held at the Beach Battery and in August a small arms competition was mounted with prizes funded by Colonel Ogston and the other officers.  The targets were floating ones out at sea, but this raised problems with local boat owners who did not always keep clear when firing was in progress.  The other major event of the year was the opening of a new headquarters building in North Silver Street.  It had been a drain on the finances of the 1^st AAV, which precluded the corps attending camp at Barry Buddon but James Ogston hoped to reinstate camp the following year.

The new headquarters were opened in November 1899 and the Aberdeen Journal, that consistent cheerleader for the 1^st AAV, was generous in its account of proceedings, coupled with criticism of the powers that be.  "The 1st Aberdeen Artillery Volunteers has for many years been recognised as one of the most efficient artillery corps in Scotland.  It is in the extremely favourable position of having its full complement of men; it is officered by citizens who do not spare themselves in the work of the corps; it is now in the position of having one of the finest headquarters in the country; and if it has been suppied with some useless guns by an inconsiderate Department, it is in that respect no worse than other bodies of artillerymen.  On Friday, the 1st AAV celebrated the opening of the new headquarters in North Silver Street, and if the officers and men were robbed , through illness, of the presence of their hon. colonel, Lord Aberdeen, they had his assurance in a letter to Colonel Ogston, that his interest in the Aberdeen Artillery was unabated.  Lord Aberdeen's place was taken by Lord Provost Flemming, who, as a long-service rifle volunteer,  has great sympathy with the artillery.  His lordship referred to the important part the artillery was playing at Ladysmith, and in this connection spoke of a matter which had already been referred to by Colonel Ogston in strong terms, namely the cheeseparing policy of the authorities in refusing up-to-date guns to the volunteer artillery for home defence.  The present war in Africa will open the eyes of the people to the importance of having proper defences for our ports.  With the country denuded of soldiers, and our fleet looking after the Empire's interests in other parts of the world, our shores are very susceptible to attack.  If, when the war is finished, the agitation for better guns for artillery volunteers is renewed, the appeal will fall on receptive ears".  (Later, James Ogston would point out that his unit had not been asked to help in South Africa because they had no serviceable weapons).  He also spoke of his dismay at the Town Council plans to locate a tramway across the Queen’s Links on a direct track to the Beach Baths, instead of curving round to the north and preserving intact "the fine drill ground".  He promised that a petition would be presented to the Town Council from the three volunteer corps in the city.  Sadly, as has been shown elsewhere, the Town Council was not in listening mode.

 

James Ogston (1845)’s forced retirement from the volunteers

A full programme of social events for the men of the 1^st AVA continued throughout 1899 and the year ended with the annual Christmas and New Year, tournaments involving billiards, whist and dominoes, which took place in the new headquarters.  The first year of the new century continued with training activities, detailed in a handbook issued by Colonel Ogston.  Early April saw the introduction of a surprise parade.  The signal for mustering would be rockets fired over the city from the tower of the Municipal Buildings and from the tower of the Free Church College at the western end of Union Street.  If Ogston was about to lose his command, he was clearly determined to go out with a bang.  But then came the news for which the 1^st AAV and its commanding officer had been hoping.  James Ogston’s command had been extended by four years.  But James Ogston had already moved his main residence to Kildrummy from Norwood Hall, perhaps in anticipation of his military post ending in 1900, so his involvement with the 1^st AAV would be even more demanding of his time for the final period of his service.  When the proclamation of King Edward VII took place in Aberdeen on 29 January 1901, 150 of the 1^st AAV’s men were called upon to line the streets in front of the Town House initially under the command of Major Adam and Captain Duncan.  Later, James Ogston took over control after appearing to arrive late for the ceremony.

The name of the artillery volunteers was changed in 1902 to “1^st Aberdeenshire Royal Garrison Artillery (Volunteers)” but the programme of training and social activities during the next two years went on much as before.  Inevitably, the date arrived for James Ogston’s retirement from the service he had done so much to support and develop over a period of 40 years through his personal example, his dedication and unrelenting pursuit of efficiency and excellence and, on more than one occasion, the employment of his own wealth to promote those ends.  James Ogston marked his own departure from the Volunteers by “presenting to the officers of the Ist Aberdeenshire Royal Garrison Artillery (Volunteers) a handsome ornament for the mess table, in the shape of a large solid silver cup of chaste design. The cup bears the inscription—" Presented to the officers’ mess of the Aberdeenshire Royal Garrison Artillery by Colonel James Ogston, VD, on his retirement from volunteer service, 1864 to 1904."   The Volunteer movement did not itself long survive the departure of Colonel James Ogston.  In 1908, the Volunteer formations were disbanded and merged into a new structure of Territorial units more closely integrated with the units of the regular army.  James Ogston received a recognition of his long and meritorious service with the Volunteers when he was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire on the recommendation of Lord Provost Lyon.  As had been the case in the past, the Aberdeen Journal paid a fulsome tribute to Colonel James Ogston.  “It will be remembered that on the institution of the Territorial Force it was recommended that appointments as Deputy Lieutenants should be conferred on gentlemen who had given a certain amount of service in the volunteer force.  Colonel James Ogston, in respect of work on behalf of the volunteer movement, is eminently worthy of the honour that has fallen to him. For almost forty years he was closely associated with the movement, and during that long period displayed activity and enthusiasm in everything concerning volunteering which formed a striking example to many.  He joined the Aberdeen City Rifles, as a private, in 1864. Two years later he joined the Aberdeen Volunteer Artillery as first lieutenant, and in 1870, was promoted to captain. In 1880 he was advanced to the rank of major, and in 1887 became lieutenant-colonel, with command of the headquarters companies. He was appointed colonel in 1892, in succession to Colonel Youngson, with the command of the corps, and was created VD when that order was instituted, a distinction which was recognized as richly deserved by such an energetic and popular officer. It will be of interest to mention that the strength of the corps at that period was 25 officers, 809 non-commissioned officers and men—total, 834; while in June 1904, when retired, the figures were—37 officers, 865 non-commissioned officers and men - total, 902. When Colonel Ogston took over the command there were in the outlying companies, eight officers and 200 non-commissioned officers and men—total, 208; while on his retirement there were 10 officers and 173 non-commissioned officers and men - total, 183. In 1899 a heavy battery was raised, and in 1901 the second heavy battery was formed. Under Colonel Ogston's command, the Artillery was always an extremely popular branch of the forces, and large as its numbers were, these no doubt would have been vastly increased but for the multiplication of volunteer corps in the city in recent years. Many signal proofs of Colonel Ogston's attachment to the corps, and his earnest desire to promote the efficiency, general equipment, and comfort of the men under his command, could be cited, and one or two citations may suffice. An enduring monument of his policy in this direction will ever remain in the beautiful new drill hall, the headquarters of the corps in North Silver Street - the finest in Aberdeen, and possibly the kingdom—and all this was provided, through the gallant colonel's instrumentality. Then, he initiated the Diamond Jubilee Accident Fund for the benefit of the men. Taking leave of the corps on the occasion of his retirement four years ago, Colonel Ogston, in the course of his remarks, said —"It is evident that greater calls are to be made upon your time in the interests of higher efficiency, but I am sure that the members of this corps are animated with sufficient patriotism to comply with any reasonable demands which may be made upon them. Given every encouragement - which the volunteers richly deserve - and more financial support, I do not see why they cannot raise sufficient men in this country for its defence. We hear about conscription, but if the volunteers are treated in a thoroughly military manner, with liberal support, they will, I am sure, be quite sufficient - backed up by our regulars - to do their duty in defending this country from invasion. In handing over the command, I am glad to be able to do so with the knowledge that this corps is in the very highest state of efficiency, and that its finances are in a thoroughly sound condition. It is my intention to ask my successor in command to accept as a parting gift from me a trophy, as a token of my esteem, for competition amongst the members of the corps. (Cheers). And now, 1st Aberdeen, in bidding you good-bye, I can only say I wish the corps every prosperity in the future”. (Loud cheers).

James Ogston’s outstanding achievements as a leader in the Volunteers probably ranked equally with his successes in commercial life.

 

James Ogston (1845) and the Aberdeen Journal   

The Aberdeen Journal was founded by the Chalmers family in 1847 and has been published continuously ever since.  This newspaper was also edited by a member of the founding family for over 100 years.  In early 1848, to mark the centenary of the publication, a celebratory dinner was held to give honour to the then proprietor, David Chalmers.  Alexander Ogston (1799) was one of many stewards attending the event.  In 1878, the firm became a limited liability company.  An annual reunion dinner was held from at least 1888 and in that year, James Ogston was an attendee, probably because he had become an investor in the company and may also have been a director.  James Ogston also attended or apologised for absence from this annual event in several succeeding years.  In 1894, the company printing the Aberdeen Journal and the Evening Express moved to new premises and celebrated by throwing a dinner for its staff.  One of the directors present was James Ogston, who continued in that capacity until the merger with the Aberdeen Free Press in 1922 and Aberdeen Newspapers Ltd was created.  At the 4^th Ordinary General Meeting of the new company, held in 1927, James Ogston took the chair, though it has not been discovered if he was the chairman of the board of directors at that time.  The following year James Ogston was present at the OGM but did not preside and may have left the board before the next annual meeting.  He would have been about 83 at the time.

 

James Ogston (1845) and the Aberdeen Association for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

The Aberdeen Association for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was established in 1870 by a group of citizens who were concerned at the level of cruelty to domestic and other animals.  It derived its income from subscriptions and donations and employed inspectors to act against those responsible for the ill-treatment of working animals, pets, farm animals and the like.  At the 1893 annual meeting of the association, James Ogston was elected as a vice-president, though his interest in the organisation is likely to have preceded this date.  At the AGM of 1897, James Ogston presided, probably due to the absence of the president.  He continued in his prominent role for the association until 1930, when he reached the age of 85.  At the AGM of 1895, "The Chairmansaid that the society existed for the protection not only of domestic animals but also of many wild animals from the thoughtless and mischievous propensities of people ... ".  James Ogston was present at the meeting and moved the adoption of the annual report, saying that they had investigated 434 cases of alleged cruelty, so the inspectors were doing their duty.  Of course, James Ogston was a regular attendee on the grouse moors during August each year and did not appear to recognise the irony of his support for animal welfare, including of wild animals.  Perhaps access to James Ogston’s wealth overcame any qualms other members may have had?

 

James Ogston (1845) and the Aberdeen Jute Company Limited

Jute is a coarse but strong fibre derived from the stems of the flowering plant genus Corchorus.  It can be spun to make twine and woven to make coarse cloth, such as hessian.  The Scottish city most strongly associated with jute spinning and weaving was Dundee.  However, this fibre was also used to some extent by the Aberdeen textile industry during the 19^th century.  One of the smaller companies involved with jute was the aptly named Aberdeen Jute Company Limited which was registered in 1873 and whose works were located at Sunnypark in the Froghall area of Old Aberdeen. At the 20^th AGM of 1892, James Ogston was noted as being present, so presumably by this date he was at least an investor in the company.  In 1894, Alexander Ogston Gill, a cousin of both Alexander M Ogston and of James Ogston, was a director of the Aberdeen Jute Company Limited.  James Ogston was elected to the board in 1896, the chairman Mr R Whyte Mackay referring to him in the following terms.  "In Mr James Ogston they had secured the able service and cooperation of one of the largest shareholders".  By 1901, AO Gill had become chairman of the company and continued until 1905.  He was succeeded by James Ogston in this role, and James continued as chairman of the board until 1928.  The company had mixed success commercially.  Nineteen twelve was described as an unsatisfactory year but that following was “a year of better trade”.  In 1915 the company made a loss.  James Ogston is unlikely to have added significantly to his wealth through his involvement with the Aberdeen Jute Company Limited, but perhaps he enjoyed the challenge?

 

James Ogston (1845) and the Aberdeen Newcastle and Hull Steam Company (Limited)

This company was first registered in 1865, through the merger of pre-existing shipping lines.  It was a coasting company trading in passengers and cargo between Aberdeen and London, calling at various intermediate ports.  It is unclear when James Ogston joined the board of the company, but in 1884 he was already the chairman and he appeared to continue in this role until 1894, though he subsequently remained on the board until at least 1924.  In 1894, the company’s steamer, the Countess of Aberdeen, ran ashore near Cove on its way to Aberdeen.  Much of its cargo was lost, including bulk materials (17 casks of carbonate of potash and 20 casks of cotton oil), valued at £358, it was carrying for A Ogston & Sons.  A dispute then arose between the shipping company and Ogstons concerning liability.   Although there were major exemptions from liability in the bill of lading, Ogston's claimed that the loss was due to the negligence of the master, William Joss.  However, the Aberdeen Newcastle and Hull Steam Company’s sailing bills sought to exempt them from acts of neglect, error of judgement or default by crew or pilots.  The dispute was taken to the courts by Ogstons as pursuer.  This must have created a conflict of interest for James Ogston, as a director of one company and a partner in its adversary and this may have caused him to stand down as chairman of the shipping company.  The Board of Trade inquiry into the wrecking of the vessel had found Captain Joss in default and suspended his ticket for 15 months.  The court decided in Ogstons’ favour and awarded them damages of £358, but the steam company appealed the decision and lost again, having costs awarded against them.  The Aberdeen Newcastle and Hull Steam Company ordered a new vessel the same year, to be named the “Norwood” in honour of James Ogston.  The contract went to the Hall Russell yard in Aberdeen, even though it had not submitted the lowest tender.  By 1924, when the company ordered another new vessel from Hall Russell, James Ogston was the longest serving director, and he was again honoured by naming of the new steamer “Kildrummy”.  Mrs Ogston agreed to carry out the naming ceremony but was unfortunately ill on the launch day.  Colonel Ogston’s niece, Miss Miller (probably Elliot Ogston Miller (1872)) his brother Alexander’s elder daughter, stepped into the breech.  “There was, loud cheering when Miss Miller, in time-honoured fashion, broke a bottle of champagne on the bow of the ship as it started to move down the slipway, and gave the vessel its name”.  It was another signal honour for James Ogston that he served on the board of a significant company for 40 years and was still serving at the age of 80.

 

James Ogston (1845) and the Bon-Accord Distillery

This business was located in Aberdeen and was established in 1855, using equipment acquired from another, defunct distillery.  Over the next decade it developed into one of the largest producers of pot still whisky in Scotland and was incorporated as a limited company in 1876.  Pot still whisky is an Irish style of the beverage made using a mix of both malted and unmalted barley.  James Ogston was a director of the company by the time of the 8^th AGM in 1883 and by 1887 he was the chairman of the board.  In 1889, a dividend of 10% was declared and James Ogston was still the chairman in 1893.  However, in common with several other distilleries, it suffered a series of fires which halted production for a long period and in 1896 the company went into voluntary liquidation, with James Ogston being named as one of the liquidators.  After this debacle, James Ogston appeared to sever his connection with the company.  The production site was then taken over by other distilleries and renamed the North of Scotland Distillery.  It went on to achieve significant success.

 

 

Ogston and Tennant’s business operations 

The first advertisements for the soaps of the new company appeared in the North-East in January 1899, in the Forres, Elgin and Nairn Gazette.  In the summer of the same year, an Exhibition of Industry and Art, sponsored by Aberdeen Trades Council, was mounted in the city.  James Ogston was present at the opening ceremony and Ogston and Tennant Limited exhibited a candlewick plaiting machine, designed by Messrs Douglas Fraser & Sons, Arbroath, which was in use at Loch Street.  This machine had two important characteristics, firstly that it produced a wick uniform in tightness of plaiting, thus ensuring that the candle burned with a regular flame and secondly, that if even one thread broke, the machine would stop.  The first year of operation of the new company seems to have run smoothly, implying that the integration of the production activities of the new commercial entity had been successfully achieved.  The Aberdeen Journal, in its end of year review of business in the North-East remarked, Messrs Ogston and Tennant, the largest and most enterprising manufacturere of soap in Scotland report that throughout the year they experienced a good average trade not only in the manufacture of soap but in the various other branches of their business.  Since the amalgamation of the firms of Ogston and Tennant in November of last year their extensive and increasing business has been carried on smoothly". 

Although Alexander Milne Ogston and his brother James were regular visitors to the Loch Street Soap and Candle Works, neither was involved in the day-to-day management of the business.  That role was played by James Watson junior.  His father, James, senior, had spent much of his career as an employee of A Ogston & Sons, where he was a clerk.  James junior had also begun his career as a clerk but was manager of the works at least between 1891 and 1901.  Being a well-recognised brand in the North-East, the name “Ogston’s” was still attached to locally produced items after the merger.  In 1903, retailer J Stables of Keith advertised Ogston products as follows in the Banffshire Herald.  "Ogston's carriage candles 24 for 1s 4 1/2 d, Ogston's candles 36 for 1s.  Ogston's XX 4lb bar soap 10 1/2d, Ogston's 2lb tin soft soap 5 1/2d, Ogston's 4lb mottled soap 10 1/2 d.

Many of the practices established during the currency of A Ogston & Sons continued under the new firm of Ogston and Tennant, such as annual social gatherings of employees and their families, though these no longer took the form of a picnic in the grounds of Ardoe House.  In March 1904 such an occasion was held in Union Hall under the presidency of Alexander Gordon Ogston, the 29-year-old eldest son of AM Ogston and a director of the new company, with 400 attending.  Amidst the jollity of eating, drinking, talking and dancing, the chairman took the opportunity to address the employees with a positive message.  Referring to 1903, he said that there had been very little trade in the country for some time past, but notwithstanding that, they had been very well employed at the works. They had tried to do their best to keep the works going. He trusted that the same success would continue.  One important contract that had been retained during the year was the supply of the entire requirements for soft soap of the Admiralty Department and the War Office contract for the supply of candles.  But the markets for both soap and candles were becoming more competitive, and this was reflected in the greatly increased use of advertising at this time.  “Ogston’s “Bouquet” Toilet Soap.  Pure and Fragrant” was one heavily promoted product.  “Ogston’s “Finest” Soft Soap.  Pure.  Sweet.  Odourless.  See that maker’s name is on all packages” was another.  This was one of the reasons for the introduction of the ill-fated Soap Combination agreement in 1906 (see below).

As in the currency of A Ogston & Sons, charitable donations were a regular feature of company activities at Ogston and Tennants’ Aberdeen Soap and Candle Works.  The donations fell into two obvious categories, donations by the management and donations by the workforce.  For both types of donations, one beneficiary overwhelmed all other giving, and that was the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, to whom the management gave £10 each year as a routine gesture.  Collections were also made periodically amongst the generality of the staff for the same cause.  Sums varied in amount but were typically in the range £2 - £8.  Some hospital donations went specifically to the Royal Aberdeen Hospital for Sick Children.  In 1928, Lord Provost Lewis was fronting the appear for capital funds to build a new general hospital at Foresterhill.  One supporting function was the annual whist drive and dance of the Aberdeen and District Grocery and Provision Traders' Association, the event being attended by 400 people.  A box of soap, gifted by Messrs Ogston and Tennant, was auctioned for the benefit of the fund.

Sporting and cultural activities continued as a social diversion for the workforce.  A male voice choir had been formed by 1912 under the musical direction of John SB Cheyne.  It was entered in the Aberdeen Music Festival of that year and subsequently held a weekly practice.  In 1913, the choir made a presentation to John Cheyne to acknowledge his leadership.  Sporting activities were provided for through football and bowls teams from the Works, which competed in local leagues.  By 1901 there was also a cycling club which made excursions into the hinterland of Aberdeenshire, usually including tea on the homeward leg of the journey.

 

A new headquarters building for Ogston and Tennant

The first signs of significant trades union militancy were noticed during WW1 and rose in frequency after the war, reaching a climax in 1926 with the general strike.  The year 1915 saw significant labour agitation in Aberdeen, including at the Soap and Candle Works.  One prominent trades union official was Mr McKenzie, the district secretary of the National Union of Gas and General Workers.  "A conference took place yesterday (17 March) between the representatives of Messrs Ogston and Tennant, soap manufacturers, and Mr McKenzie, and in the evening the workers agreed to accept the offer of a rise of 2s per week all over for men and women and 1s per week for boys and girls under 18 years of age".  Workers had a strong negotiating position during the war, due to general labour shortages and Ogston and Tennant’s management must have been relieved that this matter had been settled without the workforce resorting to direct action.

The ending of the war and the pick-up in trade triggered the next significant development of the Loch Street site.  In 1920, Ogston and Tennant revealed their plans for the development of a major new building fronting the west side of the Gallowgate, creating a landmark building which announced the presence of this major manufacturer.  The proposed new building released other property in the ownership of the company for sale.  The Aberdeen Journal contained the following notice.  “Properties for sale. The ground and buildings, suitable for Stores or Factory, on the North side of, and with frontage to, Albion Street, and situated immediately behind 77, 79, 81, 83. and 85 Wales Street. Also, the dwelling-houses 77, 79, and 81 Wales Street. For particulars apply to Ogston and Tennant Ltd., 92 Loch Street, Aberdeen”.  It would be 1922 before these buildings could actually be sold as the following saga relates.

Ogston and Tennant’s scheme, which was estimated to cost £12,000, required the demolition of some dwellings on the Gallowgate but the families displaced would be rehoused.  The plans, which had already been approved by the Plans and Sewerage Committee, were then considered by the Town Council.  Lord Provost Meff moved adoption of the plans and was seconded by Baillie Ness.  This should have been a straightforward decision but Councillor Macintosh, a left-wing representative of the new militancy which was pervading local politics, moved that the plans be not approved as the housing shortage would only be accentuated, urging the council to act under its powers from the Housing (Additional Powers) Act, 1919 to prevent the demolition of domestic accommodation.  The decision was deferred until Ogston and Tennant’s proposals for rehousing the displaced families had been ascertained.  Ten days later, Ogston and Tennant gave a guarantee that the affected families would not be moved until alternative accommodation was available for them.  The plans for the new building in Gallowgate were then approved, but with Councillor Macintosh dissenting.  The next move by Ogston and Tennant was to gain permission to demolish three houses, nos. 107 – 117 Gallowgate.  In support of their application, they wrote a letter which held out the carrot of greatly increased employment from this next phase of development.  “In their letter, which was considered by the Plans and Sewerage Committee, the firm stated that the present administrative buildings are quite unsuitable and inadequate for our present staff, and, when vacated, will be adapted for manufacturing purposes. We may mention that plans are in course of preparation for further buildings and plant so as to increase the present output of the works to a very considerable extent: this means a further expenditure of at least another £20,000, but the whole scheme depends on our being able to carry out the extension presently before the Council. “We estimate that when our scheme is completed, we shall require an increase of employees to the extent of about 50 per cent. We can assure the Town Council that we have no intention of taking down those buildings until the tenants have been provided with suitable accommodation. In the circumstances above explained, and in view of the obvious advantages which will be brought to the city by our scheme, we hope that our request will receive favourable consideration”. 

Consent was granted with, inevitably, Councillor Macintosh voting in the negative.  There was a condition attached to the permission, that the new accommodation must be in houses not at present occupied or fit for occupation.  This move supported the creation of an increase in the housing stock but still did not persuade Councillor Macintosh to change his mind.  In June 1920, the Borough Surveyor certified that Ogston and Tennant had satisfied the conditions imposed on them for the demolition of houses prior to starting their new commercial premises.  Permission was therefore granted to demolish 1 and 2 Winlaw’s Court at the rear of 109 Gallowgate.  The tenants displaced went to two properties, one of which had been unoccupied (179 West North Street) and the other had been occupied as a shop (74 Loch Street).  Even so, there was further petty squabbling in the Council, which was reflected in the ballots cast.  Permission was confirmed by a vote of 18 to 8.  This phased demolition of houses by Ogston and Tennant in association with the sourcing of replacement housing continued.  Next, the company sought permission from the Plans and Sewerage Committee to demolish 111 – 117 Gallowgate, with alternative accommodation being provided in 105 and 111, Skene Street.  The committee recommendation, Councillor Macintosh (who else?) dissenting, was for the full Town Council to grant permission.  In early August 1920. The Town Council met to consider this report.  After a long, acrimonious and farcical meeting, the report of the Plans and Sewerage Committee was rejected by 18 votes to 11 and remitted back to the Committee.  The protests were led, as usual by Councillor Mackintosh in full martyr mode, who repeatedly challenged the ruling of the Lord Provost in the chair.  This breakdown in the functioning of local government resulted in the editor of the Aberdeen Journal to reach for his pen and compose an incandescent, but carefully argued critique, of the Town Council’s baffling behaviour.

“The Gallowgate Houses. By 18 to 11, the Aberdeen Town Council yesterday decided to remit the whole controversy between themselves and Messrs Ogston & Tennant back to the Plans Committee of the Council. This decision, which means that Messrs Ogston & Tennant are not allowed to go on with the extension of their works, is bound to have serious effects on the prosperity of the city, and it calls for the closest scrutiny. To get the full bearings of the Council's action it is necessary to go back to the beginning of the discussion. On March 24 last (ie 1920) Messrs Ogston and Tennant, whose works form one of the city's most important industries, wrote to the Town Council asking permission to demolish the old dwellinghouses Nos. 107-117 Gallowgate in order to give them space to extend their works. In April this letter came before the Council, who passed a resolution authorising the firm to go on with the demolition on condition that they satisfied the Council that the tenants who would be turned out before they had been provided with suitable accommodation in houses neither occupied nor fit for occupation. The Council remitted it to the Plans Committee to see that this condition was fulfilled. Messrs Ogston & Tennant satisfied the committee that this had been done in the case of one of the houses, and the firm duly received a letter from the Town Clerk authorising them to go on with the demolition of that house, which they did. The second chapter of the story opens at the next meeting of the Town Council, when a debate arose, not on the question of accommodation at all but as to whether the Plans Committee had gone beyond their powers in sanctioning the demolition. The Council decided that the committee had no right to give their sanction, and had, in fact, blundered; and Messrs Ogston and Tennant were forbidden to demolish the house. By then, however, the firm, acting on the authority given them, which they had no need or right to question, had proceeded with the demolition of the house. The first blunder thus clearly rests with the Council or its committee officials. The firm had acted perfectly legitimately, and they continued to do so. They found accommodation for all their remaining tenants by reconditioning houses unfit for occupation, and naturally, having fulfilled the Council's conditions, they expected permission to go on with their full extension scheme. In the meantime, the Council, acting under the Housing (Additional Powers) Act, had begun to "schedule" houses, i.e., they fixed on certain unoccupied houses which they considered capable being made fit for habitation and served notices on the owners requiring them to recondition those premises for occupation. This brings us to yesterday’s meeting of the Council, when the Plans Committee recommended that, the burgh surveyor being satisfied that suitable accommodation had been arranged for the dispossessed tenants, Messrs Ogston & Tennant should be at last allowed to go on. Councillor Fraser Macintosh opposed the recommendation on the ground that the firm, by knocking down the Gallowgate houses, would be reducing the available house-room in the city. In supporting his amendment, Councillor Macintosh raised the extraordinary point that one of the houses which Messrs Ogston & Tennant had reconditioned for the use of their dispossessed tenants was a "scheduled" house and, still more extraordinary, was supported in this by a majority of the Council, including Treasurer Fiddes, who had originally moved at the Council meeting on April 5 that Messrs Ogston and Tennant be allowed to reconstruct provided they could do so " without involving the dispossession of tenants", a motion which he subsequently altered to provide that the alternative accommodation should be in houses not occupied or fit for occupation - a very different attitude from that which he took up yesterday. In any case, to raise this new question of scheduling was grossly unfair to Messrs Ogston & Tennant, for two reasons. In the first place, by making the house habitable they were actually carrying out the Council's intention by having it scheduled and in the second, the Council had not begun to schedule houses at all when the original conditions were imposed on the firm and did not begin till May 5. Nothing more than this narrative of events is needed to prove that from first to last Messrs Ogston & Tennant kept strictly to the letter and spirit of their obligation and did everything possible to satisfy the Council. It was the Council who blundered and shillyshallied and the moderate men on the Council who supported the Labour amendment should have paused to consider whether it was fair, instead of reproving themselves or their officials for the mistakes made, to punish the firm, who had conformed with all the Council's written requirements. But a more serious point than that is involved. Messrs Ogston and Tennant, one of the most progressive firms in the city, have been prevented from extending their works, and prevented by, of all people, the Labour members of the Council, who so loudly profess their concern for the unemployed. Nobody would have been injured if the firm had been fairly treated and allowed to extend their works, and the town would have benefited; as it is, this plan for increasing employment has been knocked on the head, and other firms have been harshly discouraged from attempting to extend their activities”.

It must have been a thoroughly frustrating time for the directors of Ogston and Tennant, doing their best to comply with the Council’s requirements and keeping their cool, despite the antics of individual councillors.  The company then sent the following letter to the Town Council.  “Aberdeen 13^th August 1920. The Town Clerk, Aberdeen. Dear Sir, - Owing to the great delay in granting permission to demolish the Gallowgate houses, and the consequent loss to us, we request that you will place the following facts before the Council on Monday. In the letter received from you on the 9^th April, with the Council's resolution of the 5^th April, there was no mention of scheduled houses, only that we must supply alternative accommodation, not at present occupied or fit for occupation, for those to be dispossessed at the date of our application. In order to satisfy ourselves that we were carrying out the resolution before going on with re-conditioning of 179 West North Street and 105 and 111 Skene Street we consulted not only your officials, who agreed, but also the convener of the Housing Committee who also agreed to let us have them, but, in any case, we took over the houses before they were scheduled.  We now consider that we have fulfilled the Council's resolution by re-conditioning these two houses to the satisfaction of the burgh surveyor; we therefore hope that the Council will now see that we have performed our side of the bargain and allow the demolition to go on. - Yours faithfully, James Ogston”.  After receiving a report from their officials, which gave great detail on the families to be rehoused and the condition of the properties to which they were to be removed, the Committee again recommended, Councillor Macintosh of course dissenting, that Ogston and Tennant should be allowed to proceed with the proposed demolitions.

The crucial meeting of the full Council was held on 16 August 1920 when the recommendation of the Plans and Sewerage Committee regarding Ogston and Tennant was finally approved.  As might have been anticipated, this meeting did not end the controversy with a whimper but with a bang.  As usual, the Aberdeen Journal reporter was in anticipatory attendance, pencil in hand, short-hand lexicon at the ready.  “An extraordinary scene occurred at a meeting of the Aberdeen Town Council yesterday.  Two of the Labour members - Councillors A Fraser Macintosh and JC Allan - after repeated interruptions refused to obey the orders of the Lord Provost and were requested to leave the meeting, refused to do so and only departed from the Council Chamber when the Town-Sergeant had gone to summon the police on the instructions of the Lord Provost.  The trouble arose when the Lord Provost was making a statement explaining the arrangements made by Messrs Ogston & Tennant for hosing the tenants who have removed from the houses in Gallowgate in order to permit of the demolition of the buildings to make way for an extension of Ogston & Tennant’s premises.  Having thrown out these two members, the Lord Provost invited them back in to vote on the motion. But both excluded councillors refused to participate.  The result of the vote was that Ogston and Tennant got approval to demolish the houses”.  It is to be wondered how many members of the Aberdeen working population had any sympathy for the antics of Councillor Macintosh and his acolytes, their democratic representatives.

At the end of 1922, Ogston and Tennant reported that they had had a good year, despite the export trade being poor.  The cost of both raw materials and production had been reduced which allowed soap prices to be trimmed too, an undertaking which had been given at the time of the Soap Combination in 1906.  The following year, the company’s advertising aimed at the housewife doing her spring cleaning summarised the company’s soap products.  “In spring cleaning there are articles which, while considered necessities by one class of housewife, may be regarded by another as luxuries. But to all classes the first necessity is soap, and this is where Messrs Ogston and Tennant come in. This firm supplies the trade with soap in all its forms and with all its virtues, but the housewife should remember that it always pays to buy the best quality: Messrs Ogston and Tennant are specialising at this season, in "Finest Pale," "Nimble," soft soap, and "Steepo." The pale soap is in bar form, and the '"Nimble" in tablets. Soft soap became very dear during the war, but now it stands on a level with other soaps, and it is in a very handy form. "Steepo" is the last word in dry soaps. It is not an ordinary powder, but real dried soap, and simple instructions for using it are given with every packet”. 

The building at 111 Gallowgate was completed in 1922 and occupied in June of that year.  It had been designed by architect Alexander Mavor and provided a formal office and a public presence for the company, the main working entrance, where raw materials came in and finished goods left, being on the opposite side of the Soap and Candle Works in Loch Street.  The Aberdeen Journal described the new headquarters succinctly.  “Frontage to Gallowgate 87ft, width 55ft.  Front elevation of Kemnay granite, rear and gables of common brick.  Teakwood door leads into the entrance hall from which doors open into the telephone exchange and inquiry office, a waiting room and the cashier’s office.  A door in the hall gives access to the large and spacious main office which is paved with maple blocks and furnished with polished mahogany desks.  By means of glass screens the office is divided into compartments with special accommodation for the typists.  Lighting is given by lay-lights from the ceiling while for artificial illumination there are 9 hanging incandescent lamps.  Four private offices are provided for the use of directors and there is also a board room.  There is also a strongroom, a filing room, lavatories and cloak rooms.  On the basement floor there are cloakrooms for men and women clerks, the laboratory for the chemists and other rooms.  Building heated by radiators”.  It continued in this role until the 1970s, when Ogston and Tennant ceased trading from the Aberdeen site.  After being vacated by Ogston and Tennant, the building was first used as a Waldorf school.  Today (2022) it is used as offices for a very different population of companies.  It is the only part of the Soap and Candle Works to survive, an elegant reminded of the great enterprise which was an important part of Aberdeen’s economy through out the 19^th and much of the 20^th centuries.

111 Gallowgate, Ogston and Tennant 1922

 

Fires at the Soap and Candle Works

Manufacturing which involved the application of heat to combustible raw materials or products inevitably led to industrial fires from time to time.  Whisky distilling was one such industry and soap and candle manufacture was another.  The manufactory in Loch Street suffered a series of fires over the years, the first one of which that was serious enough to reach the local press taking place in February 1828.  The following, succinct account illustrates what happened.  “On Saturday night about twelve o’clock a fire was discovered in the front shop of Mr Ogston, candle manufacturer on the Lochside which at first had a most alarming appearance but by the great activity of the firemen and the public, joined to an abundant supply of water and excellent engines, the fire was confined to one end of the house and was extinguished by two o’clock on Sunday morning.  The fire not having communicated to the warehouses the loss will be trifling compared with what it might have been and will occasion no interruption to Mr Ogston’s business.  The buildings and stock were insured with the Aberdeen office”.

The next fire was altogether a more serious affair.  It took place in January 1868 by which time the works were both much larger and also involved more chemical processes.  The fire’s origin was not in the Soap and Candle Works but in the adjoining premises of W Paterson & Sons, wholesale druggists.  It was caused by the explosion of a cask of turpentine, which appeared to have become overheated.  The town’s response to the resulting fire was remarkably efficient.  The crowded residential area adjacent to Patersons’ premises caused a particular difficulty with crowds gawping, but also struggling to secure their own possessions.  “The Watch-house engine and Captain Duthie was soon on the spot followed at short intervals by all the others.  Fifty soldiers from the barracks under Captains Savory and Drage soon made a clear space in the street which they succeeded in keeping admirably during the fire.  Captain Balfour and his Naval Reserve together with the men of the “Winchester” numbering altogether about 120 were also speedily on the scene and showed themselves ready for anything, doing good service by conveying hosepipes to the roofs of the houses”.  Patersons’ premises were beyond redemption, so the fire suppression efforts were concentrated on the surrounding houses and the premises of A Ogston & Sons which backed onto the chemist’s property, having a shared wall.  Ogstons’ men were employed to throw water over the parts of the works most at risk and they fortunately had a large cistern of water on which to draw.  They also removed casks of tallow and other combustible material from the part of the works most at risk.  The efforts of the fire crews and volunteers were helped by the fact that there was no wind.  After two hours the fire was brought under contro, and the most serious damage was largely confined to Mr Paterson’s premises.  The then owner of the Soap and Candle Works, Alexander Ogston (1799) was moved to place a note of thanks in the Aberdeen Journal.  “Mr Alex Ogston begs to return his sincere thanks to all those who rendered such effective service in the precautionary measures taken to save his property from fire in Messrs Paterson & Sons premises on Saturday morning last.  Aberdeen Soap and Candle Works, 7 January 1868”.  The fees charged by the Police Commissioners for services rendered at the fire was just over £53, £15 of which was paid by Patersons.

It was only 13 months before the next conflagration which, on this occasion, affected Ogstons quite seriously.  A tank of tallow in the still-house was being boiled when it caught alight.  This was a substantial building of two stories and 100ft long.  It contained seven tanks and, in addition to tallow, was used to distil palm oil.  There was a full call-out of the fire brigade and men from the Winchester were also sent to the scene.  On this occasion there was found to be insufficient water available for fighting the fire.  In 15 minutes, the roof of the burning building had fallen in, but the fire was confined to the still house and in two hours it had been suppressed.  The loss of materials and infrastructure was estimated at £3,000 but Ogstons’ premises were well insured and within two weeks, Ogstons were able to announce that their claim had been met by the three insurance offices involved.  Ogstons sent £7 to the Winchester as a reward for the efforts of the men and they also met the £14 6s charge from the fire brigade.

With the Ogston Works getting progressively bigger and moving to having both day and night shifts of workers, it was only a matter of time before it was hit by another conflagration.  The fateful moment arrived in October 1876 when a tall chimney stack, whose role it was to conduct away the smoke and fumes from several furnaces on site, caught fire due to the accumulated soot lining its inner walls.  Burning soot was shot into the air and fell on 200 casks of tallow standing in the yard, six of which ignited.  Ogstons’ men acted with commendable speed, isolating the burning barrels and dousing them with copious amounts of water, quickly bringing the outbreak under control.  It was fortunate that the men were so agile in dealing with the outbreak, which could have had much more serious consequences.  In total there were several hundred tons of tallow on site in addition to other flammable substances, such as paraffin.  The following year, 1877, a warehouse belonging to A Ogston & Sons in Dundee, but at the time being used as a jute warehouse, caught fire and was completely burned out at an estimated loss of £5,000.  At least the managers seemed to appreciate the risks inherent in their operations and emergency plans were put in place.  In 1884, an exercise was undertaken by calling out the fire brigade in Aberdeen on a false alarm.  A fire engine with 12 men arrived at the Works in eight minutes.

The still-house was again the source of a further fire in 1888 and in its reporting, the Aberdeen Journal pointed out some alarming facts about Ogstons’ site between Loch Street and the Gallowgate.  It was one of the largest such factories in the Kingdom, yet it was located “in a populous part of the city”.  This was a product of historical accident coupled with the longevity of the business.  So much investment had been sunk into the site and it was such an important employer that moving to a new, more remote site was simply unthinkable.  However, the buildings on the site had recently been almost entirely reconstructed and care had been taken to isolate the different departments from each other to help contain any fire outbreak.  The last time the still-house was in production was on Saturday morning, 14 April.  The fires had then been put out and the building locked up over the rest of the weekend.  In spite of these precautions, watchman Alex Thaw discovered a fire, whose cause remained undetermined, on Sunday evening at the south end of the still-house, a structure which was 60ft long and of two stories.   There were two hydraulic presses located near the seat of the fire.  Close by were two tons of stearine, which was employed to make hard candles.  In addition, at least 12 casks of palm oil were stored above the presses along with six casks of intermediate stearine, with further tanks of palm oil elsewhere in the same building.  It was a very dangerous location to suffer a conflagration.  Alex Thaw tried to fight the fire and also called for the fire brigade.  Someone also contacted the principals of the business, Alexander Milne Ogston and James Ogston, who soon arrived on the scene, where they found a large crowd gawping at the spectacle.  The police were able to control the crowds.  But the still-house was beyond redemption.  It was gutted and its equipment destroyed.   Large quantities of water were poured onto the fire and when this started to flow out of the building, it brought with it a lot of melted grease and oil.  Sand was used to divert these flows to a harmless location.  At least the new dispersed layout of the site, the brain-child of AM Ogston, led to the blaze being confined to one section of the works.  Although damage estimated at £3,000 was done, the premises were insured, and the Works were able to continue in production.

By the early 1900s, the management of Ogston and Tennant must have become inured to the notion that the risk of fire could be reduced, but not eliminated, in an operation such as theirs, even though they had not suffered a significant fire since 1888.  There was a further outbreak of fire, this time in the soap boiling room, at the Loch Street premises in August 1903.  It was quickly extinguished by the Fire Brigade.  But this morsel proved only to be the hors d’oeuvre before the plat principal, which was served up exactly a year later.

In 1904, the site of the Soap and Candle Works extended in a great rectangle over about three acres, bounded by Loch Street in the west, Gallowgate in the east, Innes Street in the north and M’Kay’s Court (known informally as “Candle Court”) in the south.  Expansion was made possible by the purchase of the adjacent property of Messrs Barry, Henry & Co, iron founders and, from time to time, other properties in the Gallowgate and Innes Street.  By this year the whole of the block, with the exception of a few houses in the Gallowgate had been secured.  Within the site, whose main entrance was in Loch Street, there was a fine suite of offices near the centre of the rectangle, the south wing was used mainly for soap-making, the north for candle-making and the side adjacent to the Gallowgate was devoted to the margarine department, the refinery (in which paraffin wax, used for the manufacture of candles, was processed), the box-making factory and the cooperage.  The fire started on Saturday 13 August.  On that day the staff of the refinery, adjacent to the Gallowgate, had finished work at 1.00pm but before leaving the premises a lad named Campbell sensed something was burning and gave the alarm. The fire brigade was called by telephone and the carriage reel, a steam fire engine and the fire escape were quickly on the scene, under the command of Deputy-Firemaster Pollock.  It soon became clear that a major fire was inevitable and so two further fire engines and more hose reels were summoned to the scene.  The situation quickly became almost apocalyptic, as the Aberdeen Journal dramatically described.  “Before the fire blazed in full fury huge volumes of dense, suffocating smoke belched from the burning building, and the scene in Innes Street and Gallowgate was for a time almost indescribable. The occupants of the few houses on the north side of Innes Street were quickly driven to the street by the smoke; while, owing to the direction and nature of the wind, the northmost portion of Gallowgate was enveloped in a murky gloom in which persons could not see each other a yard apart. So quickly did this occur—before hardly any of the residents north of Innes Street were aware of the outbreak—that people seemed to think that the city had been suddenly overwhelmed by fire, and for a time there was an extraordinary panic. Women ran shrieking as they sought to get out of the impenetrable smoke; mothers screamed for their children, who could not be seen in the terrible gloom of the choking atmosphere, and several were heard piteously exclaiming—"My God! whaur's my bairns””?

Ogston and Tennant fire 1904, Gallowgate

The fire raged furiously within the refinery building, its interior appearing like a “huge glowing furnace”.  The efforts of the firemen, plagued by severe heat and dense smoke, were puny against the intensity of the blaze.  Soon, the concrete slab floors of the building collapsed to the ground with loud crashes, allowing the fire to spread to the roof.  Shortly, this too plunged down, but the fire continued to rage, fed by many tons of highly flammable materials of various kinds. Thousands of tons of melted paraffin wax issued from the building, floating on hot water down an incline towards the main entrance in Loch Street forming a moving mass, which at times was almost a foot deep.  Lord Provost Lyon and two reporters, who had appeared at the scene, became cut off by the lava-like flow.  They had to resort to using boxes and planks as an informal bridge to escape the obnoxious stream.  Some of this flood of liquid had started to solidify but some reached the street outwith the site and poured down the sewers.  Great efforts were made using volunteers to scoop up the liquid mass into barrels in an attempt to stop the sewer pipes becoming blocked, but also to salvage valuable raw material.

By 2.30pm, the box-making building to the south of the refinery, which contained a large stock of wood, was well ablaze and threatening the cooperage next door, but this was prevented by flooding the floor of this building with water.  The fire also spread northwards from the refinery to the margarine department, which contained a large amount of stored oleo.  This building was also destroyed and the fire then moved onwards to the “fat-house”, where barrels of this raw material were stored, periodic explosions occurring as over-heated barrels exploded, ejecting burning cask ends high into the sky.  The conflagration next threatened the candle-making department and then the candle store on Loch Street but sailors from HMS Clyde and HMS Cockatrice, who had been summoned to help, carried out boxes of candles and stacked them in their hundreds along the side of John Street.

Thousands of citizens gathered, especially on Loch Street at the main entrance from where they could see down the site, animated by a mixture of awe and fear.  The police, aided by a detachment of Gordon Highlanders, were tasked with maintaining order and keeping the crowd at a safe distance.  Alexander Milne Ogston had been alerted by telephone to the conflagration engulfing his works and he quickly travelled to the scene of destruction.  His main task, along with Mr Watson, the site manager, was directed to the rescue of the company’s books from offices on the north side of the site for safe keeping in the stables located on the west side of Loch Street.  Once the threat to the offices was contained, the company’s records were returned to the main site.  Almost all the town’s Councillors came to view the scene at some time during the afternoon and evening.

Crowds also gathered in the Gallowgate, some watching from the windows of tenements.  Fears were entertained that the fire would spread to domestic properties there and panicking residents made desperate attempts to secure their belongings, which proved to be a near impossible task, given the crowds and the chaos occasioned by the blaze.  Hot oil and water also poured into the Gallowgate making conditions underfoot extremely hazardous and hampering the efforts of the firemen.  The Mission Hall of the Gallowgate United Free Church, adjacent to Ogstons’ site, was destroyed.  Also lost was the public house of the late Mr William Cantlay, managed by his trustees, which had domestic apartments above ground level.  Next along the street, the shoemaking and repairing business of Mr Watt was also partly consumed, but not before some books and tools had been secured.  Collapsing walls showered masonry into the Gallowgate, adding to the mayhem.  Dislodged slates also crashed from the roofs, hitting some firemen, though none was seriously hurt.  An Aberdeen Journal reporter, observing the scene from the Gallowgate reported that at the height of the blaze, “The building (box-making department) now was practically in ruins, but the blazes mounted high in the air and roared with fearful splendour while the lurid glare of the dense impenetrable banks of black smoke rolling across the heavens presented a spectacle of awesome grandeur”. 

Eventually, the conflagration was contained and brought under control, much of Ogstons’ manufactory essentially avoiding damage, most importantly the manufacturing parts of the Works, both for soap and candles, which allowed Alexander Ogston to announce that the site would continue in operation and that the workers would not be affected.  The Town Council Cleansing Department was quickly brought in to clear the streets of grease and wax.  Three tenement buildings in the Gallowgate and in Innes Street were sufficiently damaged that the residents had to be evacuated.  Some went to stay with friends, but others were accommodated in empty properties in the vicinity and those that needed extra help were given money, beds, blankets, provisions and the likes.  The Rev. James Smith of St George’s in the West also offered his church hall and his church as emergency accommodation.  It was a remarkably effective and generous response to the emergency by both public bodies and private landlords.

The day after the fire, Mr Watson junior, the manager of the Soap and Candle Works, toured the site in the company of a reporter from the Aberdeen Journal.  Watson estimated the cost of the fire, as it affected Ogstons and in terms of lost materials, machinery and buildings, at about £50,000 (in the end it proved to be £41,000 – about £5.3 million in 2021 money)), but in spite of the loss of facilities, he did not think any redundancies would result as soap and candle-making, where most of the staff were employed, would continue as normal.  There might be a shortage of raw materials for the manufacture of candles, but the company had stocks from which to supply their customers for the present.  Watson offered a few speculations as to the cause of the blaze, but no convincing explanation emerged, not even on whether the cause was internal or external, accidental or felonious.  In the opinion of the Aberdeen Journal, this fire had probably been “one of the greatest and most destructive fires that ever occurred in Aberdeen”.  However, it was also remarkable that there had been neither loss of life nor serious injury in spite of the fire being so large, destructive and adjacent to domestic property.  As would be expected of Ogstons, all the buildings were insured with a variety of insurance companies. 

The consequences of the great fire continued to reverberate around Aberdeen for some time after the event.  The site continued to attract visitors keen to see the scenes of utter devastation.  This included some visitors from furth of Aberdeen.  There was also much activity on the site itself as tottering walls were demolished, many of them pulled down by a traction engine equipped with a wire rope.  Work also went ahead to clear the sewers which had become blocked with solidified wax.  This was difficult and even dangerous work due to the lack of space underground, the poor ventilation and the need to use pickaxes.  An old house in Spring Garden use used as a temporary store for the recovered detritus.  On the human frontier, the Town Council established a Relief Committee, and it commissioned a report to provide necessary statistics on the numbers of families affected by the fire and their needs, temporary, pragmatic actions continuing meantime to help displaced families.  The circumstances in the Gallowgate proved to be too much of a temptation for some light-fingered members of the community.  James Harwell of Causewayend was arraigned on a charge of stealing a silk dress, a timepiece, and two pairs of boots from a shop in Gallowgate, while the fire was raging.  He was found guilty and given the option of a 21s fine or 10 days in Craiginches Prison.  Messrs Ogstons did their bit for the community by donating £100 to the Town Council to defray their outlays occasioned by the fire.

With each outbreak of fire, Ogstons sought to improve their fire prevention and fire preparedness actions, as part of the programme of reinstatement, but business was expanding, and the company was clearly prepared to accept the risk of fire as a consequence of their success.  Another, but more limited, fire occurred in February of 1905, when the candle-moulding department was destroyed in a conflagration which started after 5.00pm on Saturday 4^th in a mixed store under the facility containing 150 tons of paraffin wax in barrels, 60 tons of tallow, about 50 tons of caustic soda and potash and a quantity of resin.  The building was well ablaze when the fire brigade arrived under the command of Firemaster Inkster, who suffered a leg injury in a fall at the site.  It took until about 6.30pm for the fire to be brought under control.  Again, water and molten wax flowed along Loch Street and over 100 candle-making machines were lost.  The cost of the damage done was estimated at £6,000 but proved to be £7,500.  Both Mr AM Ogston and Mr Watson again had to witness the ravages to their commercial premises. 

Ten months on from this latest outbreak of fire, in April 1906, there was another, but more confined blaze in the candle store at 2.00pm.  But, due to the heroic efforts of Firemaster Inkster and his men and despite an initial lack of water pressure, the blaze was contained by 3.00pm and limited to the first floor of the building and the damage estimated at only £1,000.  However, the frequency of recent fires at the works and especially the memories of the 1904 event caused much alarm in the community of local residents.  The Lighting and Fires Committee of the Town Council looked into the report that water pressure had been inadequate but claimed that there was no problem since they had in the last year improved the supply to the Loch Street area.  Ogstons, too were forced to re-examine their fire precautions and turned to the latest technology for both detecting and fighting fires.  In June 1907 they laid on a demonstration of automatic fire detectors and sprinklers (Expansion Pneumatic Alarm and Grinnoll sprinklers) which had been installed throughout their works.  Representatives of the manufacturers were present, as were many representatives of other businesses and insurance companies.  The demonstration was very successful.  Thirty-two seconds after a fire was lit in one of the buildings the expansion automatic fire detectors acted simultaneously, a fire call to the Central Fire Brigade Station, King Street was made, local fire gongs were rung, and water turned on in the sprinkler supply pipes in the vicinity of the fire. About two minutes later an automatic sprinkler opened and surrounded the fire with water.  The systems for detecting and controlling fires automatically seemed to repay the investment as only one further fire at the Aberdeen site was recorded.  In 1914, a slight outbreak of fire occurred at the Loch Street premises.  The fire brigade was called and soon had the outbreak under control.

The Glasgow factory of Ogston and Tennant was not so fortunate.  In 1910 the whole soap and candle works was destroyed in a great fire.  There were reports of machinery crashing through the floors and the total cost of the damage was estimated at £80,000 (about £10 million in 2021 money).  The factory was replaced with a new build at Renfrew adjacent to the Babcock and Wilcox works at a cost of about £50,000 and with fire resistant floors.  The influence of Lever Brothers was evident by this date.  "The works will be of the latest cnstruction , and similar to those in use at Port Sunlight, a feature being the smoke consumption by induced draught, sliminating the necessity for a long chimney stack, the vapours from the boiler requiring only a very short stack.  In short, there will be practically no smoke or dust about the works".  

The Soap Combination 

In parallel with the development of Charles Tennant’s business in Glasgow and the Ogstons’ business in Aberdeen, another highly significant development in the manufacture of household products was taking place in Lancashire.  James Lever, born 1809 in Bolton, Lancashire, became a grocer in his native town.  He married Elizabeth Hesketh, the daughter of a cotton mill manager and the couple had a family of 12 children, nine of them girls.  The eldest son was William Hesketh Lever, who entered life in 1851.  He started work in the family grocery business in 1866, where his father ensured he had a thorough grounding in all aspects of the business with a view to William eventually taking over.  In 1879, James Lever bought a failing grocery business in Wigan and put his eldest son in charge of its revival.  This was quickly achieved and within a few years he had started selling soap manufactured by others, not by weight as other retailers did, but in small, wrapped and branded bars.  He used the trademark “Sunlight”, registered in 1875, when the Trade Mark Registration Act came unto force, for his soap products.  William’s business was called Lever and Company Wholesale Grocers.  But he found that the soap suppliers were unreliable and produced a variable product, in spite of him issuing manufacturing instructions to them, which persuaded him of the need to add soap manufacturing to his own activities, thus ensuring consistent product quality.  William bought a small soap manufacturer based in Warrington in 1885 but within two years the soap plant was at maximum capacity and in need of expansion.  William Lever then bought 56 acres of land on the Wirral Peninsula in Cheshire, fronting on the river Mersey.  There he developed his new factory, which was opened in 1888, along with a model village for his work force to occupy.  The site was named Port Sunlight, but this project was only part of his strategy for ensuring that he had a contented and hard-working labour force.  William H Lever founded Lever Brothers in 1886 with his brother James.  Expansion and diversification, including manufacture of soap from vegetable oils, then proceeded apace under the inspired leadership of William Lever, including the formation of subsidiaries located overseas.

William Lever

By 1905, there was increasing competition for the raw materials used by soap manufacturers from the producers of margarine, leading to steep price rises for soap.  There was also increased competition from other soap manufacturers which led to a need for much more advertising, especially in the popular press, with a concomitant increase in advertising costs.  These concerns were common to all the major soap manufacturers in Britain and in July 1906 William Lever attended a meeting called by a group of producers based in the North of England to air possible solutions to their common problems.  The agreed way forward was to create a Soap Combination, a group of manufacturers who would work together to reduce costs, minimise competition and collaborate in sourcing raw materials.  This arrangement was suspected by some critics to be a blatant cartel whose intention was to raise and control prices and protect markets.  William Lever, on the other hand countered this accusation with the view that the Trust’s aim was cost reduction, which would benefit the consumer by making price reductions feasible.

Opposition to the proposed Soap Combination started to mount, orchestrated by Lord Northcliffe, the proprietor, with his brother Lord Rothermere, of the Daily Mail, which was first published in 1896.  Northcliffe labelled the collaboration with the term “Soap Trust”, thus implying that it would behave in the manner of monopolistic American trusts in damaging the interests of the consumer.  One reason for this opposition appears to have been that the Daily Mail would likely be a significant loser from reduced newspaper advertising of soap products, amounting to about £14,000 at the time.  Highly critical, even inflammatory, articles started to appear in the Daily Mail from October 1906, which were reproduced in other organs of the press, including the Aberdeen Journal.  Ogston and Tennant were named as one of “about half a dozen” members of the proposed Soap Trust.  Negotiations to form the Combination were then underway but had not been concluded.  However, the Daily Mail asserted that this Trust would result in the cost of soap rising and the ending of the marketing ploy of giving gifts in return for soap wrappers.  A representative of the Aberdeen Journal (which had reproduced the Daily Mail article) then made enquiries of Ogston and Tennant in Aberdeen who affirmed that rather than price rises for soap, the collaboration between manufacturers would reduce prices through cutting the cost of competitive advertising.

The Aberdeen Journal continued to follow this developing story, drawing freely from articles published elsewhere, in addition to interrogating the management of Ogston and Tennant in the city.  Estimates of savings were stated to be of the order of £1M per annum on advertising and a similar reduction of the costs of travellers’ expenses, separate agencies and railway accounts, etc.  There would be savings sufficient to reduce the price of soap and still make greater profits than previously.  There was also heady talk of the member firms aiming for amalgamation, which would lead to an industrial behemoth with capital of the order of £12M.  The firms in negotiation were identified as Messrs Gossage, Widnes, Messrs Crosfield and Son, Warrington, Messrs Watson and Sons, Leeds. Messrs Lever Bros, Port. Sunlight, Christopher Thomas and Bros, Limited, Messrs Ogston and Tennant, Aberdeen and Glasgow, and Messrs Barrington, Dublin, though this was not an immutable list with some new members entering and others leaving as the project was developed.

But hostility towards the proposed Soap “Trust” was growing.  The Aberdeen Journal remarked “… a considerable portion of the London press is in full cry after the soap combine. Everything possible is being done to stir up antagonism to the new organisation, which is declared to be behaving in the usual fashion of trusts. The "Daily Mail" avers - with what truth cannot yet be ascertained - that the country is being divided up into spheres of influence for the firms concerned. Messrs Ogston and Tennant, according to this paper, are to receive Scotland as their share. Messrs Watson may get the east coast, and Vinolia the West End of London. In these places no competition will be offered to the other soap makers in the combine. In another quarter it is stated that the reductions in the weight of a bar soap mean a gain of £2833 6s 8d per 1000 tons to the manufacturers. From an unexpected quarter there also comes an alarm. The "Newspaper Owner," having submitted the matter to expert advice, arrives at the conclusion that the combine will, by curtailing advertising, cause a loss of about £500,000 to the newspapers of the country”.  This latter figure seems to have been a wild and alarmist exaggeration.

Take-over of small producers was certainly a strategy employed by Lever Brothers who acquired the Vinolia Company (formed in 1892 in Holland) in 1906 but had retained all the staff of that soap manufacturer, as well as the brand, which was applied to soap products for sensitive skin.  A Ogston & Sons and Ogston and Tennant had also taken over competitors in earlier years

Other newspapers in the North-East joined in the speculation about the consequences for the consumer.  In the Buchan Observer, admittedly not an organ much consulted beyond Aberdeenshire’s northern shores, there appeared a remarkably literary, amusing and even florid editorial peroration on the subject.  It is reproduced in full.  “Blessing on the man who first invented soap! What a powerful hitch onward he gave to civilisation; for if cleanliness be next to godliness, as the aphorism declares, the first soap boiler was a kind of hygienic evangelist, and to his missionary efforts we owe what might be termed our epidermic salvation. It cannot, we fear, be asserted that soap and sin are entirely antagonistic, else the clean of skin would also be entirely clean of soul, which unfortunately cannot be held to have the self-evidence of a Euclidian axiom; but in a general way it may be allowed that the outwardly clean are by way of being on the road to that inner purity of spirit which a physically filthy habit of body would help to render unattainable. It is therefore not going altogether beyond the mark to contend that soap is one of the great and potent, agents in man's evolution from a lower to a higher state. Before soap was invented men washed themselves, no doubt, but the tubbing must have been difficult, and the results not entirely satisfactory, if dirt had the same adhesive quality that it has nowadays. It is in the interests of the whole human race that soap should be cheap, so that if men fall away in righteousness, they may increase in cleanliness, which as the moralists and teachers tell us is the second best characteristic of our fallen condition and we view with considerable apprehension, therefore, the formation of a soap syndicate or trust which by pooling profits and securing a monopoly shall put to some extent a premium on dirt. As long as there was free competition among the soap boilers, the public could be sure of obtaining the great adjunct to cleanliness at a reasonable price; but when the entire manufacture comes to be under the control of one or two great combinations, and the poor man has to buy from one of these or go without, the case becomes serious indeed. People having once performed their ablutions with the help of "Sunlight," or "Vinolia," or "Brown Windsor," cannot be expected to go back to Fuller's earth with any degree of comfort. For quite a long period in our northern districts Ogston's "Crown Pale" reigned alone in the soap firmament without perturbation from any other saponaceous star. It was a household word and stood as the symbol for external purity both of the body and the body's apparel, and so sensitive are the affections, and so tenacious are old habits, that when the firm changed its name there was a cooling of the people's ardour towards the familiar "Crown Pale" and a running after strange lathering solvents. The simple fact of changing the name of the historical firm must have had the effect of reducing the cleanliness of the north by quite an incomputable number of decimal points, if not indeed by several whole integers. And if that be so in regard to one firm, it can be imagined what an apathy will set in with regard to cleanliness when all our special and favourite makers are lost and merged in one soulless, impalpable, unknowable combination, without a soul to be saved or a body to be kicked, but merely a board of directors. The great Soap Combine is a form of collectivism which it is impossible to admire. Yet it should give the upholder of the political collectivist creed some heart to push ahead, since those who are broadest in the denunciation of his methods are seemingly the first to follow in his steps”.

Other North-East organs of the press were more direct in their antagonism towards the proposed Soap “Trust”.  The Aberdeen People’s Journal, its title indicating its position on the political spectrum, at the end of October 1906, included an editorial with the inflammatory heading, “The soap combine: retailers preparing for war.  Startling Developments Expected”.  “Whether the soap combination can technically be called a Trust or not, the public are undoubtedly growing uneasy in regard to the possible results of this great union of soap manufacturers. That it will be followed by a rise in the price of the commodity seems certain, and it is evidently unpopular with the retail grocery trade. There is, however, no possibility of interfering with the combination as long as its members agree to act together. The most satisfactory feature in the position is that several firms remain outside the combination, and therefore competition in the production of soap will still continue. It is possible, however, that this great union of soap manufacturers may devote itself to crushing out competition. In that case it will be beyond all doubt a Trust and will be carrying out the policy which has invariably guided similar bodies in America. If the members of the combination are not to compete with each other, it would seem inevitable that they should exert themselves to destroy outside competitors. The spirit of the American Trust seems to be invading industries in this country. It is now rumoured that the manufacturers of cocoa intend to form a combination with the view of regulating prices and saving expenditure. Should the “Trust” policy be successful in this case it will almost certainly extended to other manufacturing industries. Startling developments are, it is announced, expected in connection with the Soap Trust. Lever Brothers have bought out the other firms in the combine, and it is rumoured that a huge combine to cover Europe and America is being attempted with the co-operation of the Beef Trust. Already prices have been raised, the profits of retailers cut down from 20 to 13 per cent., and many employees of the Trust soap firms dismissed. The new Trust will control the production of seven-eighths of the laundry and household soaps of the country. Further, it is estimated that out the 10,000 people employed by the amalgamated firms, from 25 to 35 per cent, will lose their jobs. Discharges have already begun, and firms outside the combine are besieged with applications for work. Shopkeepers are becoming alarmed, for should the Trust get to work, the next development will probably be an imitation of the Tobacco Trust. There will be tied shops, and shopkeepers who stock any other soaps besides those of the combine will be boycotted. Foreseeing all these eventualities, the retailers are up in arms all over the country and are determining to back up the firms outside the combine to the best of their power”.  All fact-light, alarmist speculation against a combine which did not then exist and whose behaviour could be anticipated, but not observed.

William Lever, head of the largest firm in the proposed Soap Combination and the main spokesman for its aims, fought back against the nay-sayers.  He said that the combination was not a trust in the American sense, the savings in costs would benefit the middlemen, retailers and consumers, as well as the producers, the recent reduction in the weight of “Sunlight” soap bars was an alternative to raising the price, which was fully revealed to retailers, was occasioned by the rising cost of raw materials and did not result from devious collaboration between producers.  However, organisations representing the retailers were not convinced by William Lever’s assurances.  The Handsworth Grocers' Association urged the public to avoid buying soaps manufactured by the “Trust” members.  The Liverpool Grocers' Association and the Liverpool Chandlers' Association jointly decided to recommend to their members that the price of all soaps produced by “Trust” members should go up in price.  Leicester and District Retail Grocers' Association decided that its members would only stock soaps produced by non-consortium members.  The retailers had been uniformly won over to the view that the Soap “Trust” would be a bad thing for them and that they would henceforth try to undermine the proposal. 

The Daily Mail and its Scottish side-shoot, the Daily Record and Mail, continued to lead the charge against the Soap “Trust” proposal, one of their reporters giving the Ogston and Tennant representative in Glasgow a hard interview at the end of October.  He confirmed that O&T was part of the consortium, as was Lever Brothers, but had not withdrawn and did not know of any other manufacturer doing so.  The Aberdeen and Glasgow soap manufacturer released a public statement to counter the mud-slinging, which they believed was damaging its reputation.  “…they publicly announce that their business continues as formerly to be managed and controlled by their own directors, and that their soaps are not advanced in price, nor the qualities or weights altered in any way. They also assure the public that they may depend in the future, as in the past, on being treated honestly, fairly, and straightforwardly in all their dealings with the firm”.

The one newspaper which threw cold water over the scaremongering about the impact of the Soap Combination, emanating from the popular end of the newspaper spectrum, was The Times.   “The Thunderer” pointed out that very few trusts set up in the past had achieved the aims of their associations and that the proposed Soap Combination was unlikely to be successful in creating even a partial monopoly, as too many manufacturers were outside the grouping and the raw materials were ubiquitous, so the market could not be cornered.  It was only by drawing parallels with the malfeasance of some American trusts that the popular newspaper attacks gained any traction.  “The public alarm is unnecessary. It would be futile under present conditions to attempt to establish a real monopolist trust here in such a trade as soap making, and any view of the present movement which presupposes a vast trust is too far-fetched and improbable to be convincing; the combination is capable of a much simpler and more reasonable explanation”.

Ogston and Tennant issued a circular to their customers, dated 31 October 1906, informing them that from 1 November the working arrangements between leading soap manufacturers would come into force.  However, the reputational damage had already been done.  The combination struggled on for a while but was faced with only two options, disband or mount an extensive and expensive advertising campaign to counter the untruths that had been spread. The first option was followed, and the decision to terminate the association was taken at a meeting on or about the 23 November 1906 and the decision notified to the wholesale trade via a circular.  William Lever felt personally affronted that his reputation for commercial probity had been trashed so gratuitously and took legal advice on the strength of his case against the Daily Mail for libel.  He was assured that his case was very strong, so he went ahead with an action against that newspaper in July 1907.  He engaged Sir Edward Carson, KC, to lead his legal challenge.  Sir Edward, an Ulsterman, was one of the most prominent barristers of his day.  Associated Newspapers Limited, the owner of the Daily Mail was the defender, and it also hired a high-powered legal team.  Sir Edward introduced his case in an opening speech which lasted for five hours before calling William Lever as his first witness.  William performed brilliantly.  The result was that at the start of the second day’s proceedings, the defence threw in the towel and retracted completely "every imputation made upon Mr Lever's honour and integrity" and expressed their client’s regret that unwarranted attacks had been made upon his reputation.  Damages awarded against the defendant were enormous, about £90,000.  An interesting post-script to this success was that the Port Sunlight workers were granted a day’s holiday.  William Lever did not employ the monetary windfall for his personal use, or for the benefit of the company, but instead donated it to the University of Liverpool, which gives a good indication of William Lever’s probity.

That was not the end of legal proceedings in relation to the collapse of the Soap Combination.  Ogston and Tennant took separate action in the Court of Session in Edinburgh in November 1907 against the Daily Record (Glasgow) Limited and Associated Newspapers Limited, London for alleged slander against the company.  The two actions were taken separately, the Daily Record case having precedence.  In each action, Ogston and Tennant sought £25,000 in damages.  Over 60 pages of extracts from the Daily Record were presented in evidence and Ogstons claimed that they had been accused of entering into  “ … a combination or trust by means of which they were about, by dishonest methods, to manufacture and sell soap of bad quality at extortionate rates, to secure inordinate profits by dishonestly over-charging tradesmen, and that the pursuers had entered into a conspiracy for the purpose of rendering impossible the manufacture and sale by others of soap,  of crushing competitors by dishonourable methods and of extortionately raising the prices of all soaps and increasing their profit by the extensive and unscrupulous dismissals of employees”.  The Daily Record’s defence was that “…the articles published by them were fair comment made in good faith and without malice in regard to matters of public interest. The articles related to the formation of a trust or combination, and they honestly believed that its formation would be inimical to the public interest and would cause serious injury to the public. The defenders printed and published the articles complained of in the exercise of their right to publicly discuss matters affecting the public interest”.  William Lever was the first and star witness for the prosecution, demonstrating that price rises for soap had nothing to do with the formation of the combination of manufacturers but were caused by rises in raw material prices.  Although the manufacturers in the combination covered 80% of the soap produced in Great Britain, they could not corner the market for raw materials because of competition from other industries for the same oils.

The most objective evidence on the impact of the newspaper campaign against the Soap Combination came from chartered accountant, Alexander More who had audited the Ogston and Tennant books since the formation of the company in 1899.  In the first 10 months of 1905, the company had sold 125,035 cwt of soap.  In the same period of 1906, ie before the start of the newspaper campaign against the soap combine, the equivalent figure was 130,447 cwt, an increase of 4.3%.  In the last two months of 1905, soap sales amounted to 22,560 cwt and for the same period of 1906, ie after the start of the newspaper campaign, the figure was 21,069 cwt, a falling off of 6.6%.  However, the loss on soap trading was compensated for by increases in the profits earned in other branches of Ogston and Tenant’s business and the soap business had recovered by 1908.  Lord Guthrie, the judge hearing the case before a jury, was not wholly convinced by the arguments presented by Ogston and Tennant.  He found that much of their evidence was confusing and not relevant.  Many of the issues complained of were legitimate matters for public discussion.  Also, no great harm had been done to Ogston and Tennant.  He directed the jury’s attention to two questions; had there been slander and if so what amount of damage, if any, done by the Daily Record?  He suggested two practical questions which would allow the jury to settle if, or not, there had been slander.  These were, "Are the pursuers charged with selling short weight”? and " Are they charged with passing off trust goods as non-trust goods”?  The jury returned their unanimous verdict after consideration lasting 1 hour and 20 minutes.  The case against the Daily Record was proved but damages of £9,000 only was awarded, far short of the £25,000 sought.  The case against the Daily Mail did not proceed.  It was settled by the newspaper agreeing to pay £4,500, plus expenses, to Ogston and Tennant.

 

Ogston and Tennant are taken over by Lever Brothers

Under the combination agreement of 1906, Lever Brothers were to take over the whole of the Ordinary shares of Ogston and Tennant from the vendors, and £12,500 of the £20,000 of Preference stock. Lever Brothers were to have an absolute majority in voting, subject to qualifications in the agreement.  Ogston and Tennant were to have one seat on the board of Lever Brothers. Lever Brothers, having got the control, were to exercise that control by keeping in office as directors those presently on the board of Ogston and Tennant. It would not have been open to Lever Brothers to shut down Ogston and Tennant's works.  But the soap combination agreement was still-born and this gentle take-over of Ogston and Tennant by Lever Brothers did not happen, at least not immediately.  Five years after the collapse of the soap combination, it was announced that "the business of Ogston and Tennant, Aberdeen and Glasgow, will be "associated" with that of Messrs Lever Brothers, Limited, Port Sunlight.  Ogston and Tennant, however, will continue to control the working of their own business".   Although the exact terms of this agreement have not been uncovered, it appears that it was modelled on the agreement governing the soap consortium.  William Lever was clearly smart enough to realise that his best interests were served by retaining the local management in both Glasgow and Aberdeen, which had been so successful in the recent past and who knew their premises, workforce and management intimately.

Thus, Ogston and Tennant became a subsidiary of Lever Brothers in 1911.  There was one immediate benefit to the workforce in Aberdeen and Glasgow.  Lever Brothers had in place a pension scheme which was applied both to the main company and to its subsidiaries.  William Lever had given half a million pounds to the scheme and promised more when that ran out.  All employees were pensioned after 15 years’ service, if they had to retire early due to illness or accident, or after 30 years of service, or on reaching the age of 65.  Widows and orphans were pensioned at half the rate of men and up to five children received pension benefit to the age of 16.  The employee pension was calculated as 1/60^th annual pay, multiplied by years of qualifying service.  William Lever, who was knighted in 1911, became Baron Leverhulme in 1917 and Viscount Leverhulme in 1922, was clearly a far-sighted and benevolent employer.  Ogston and Tennant continued in its “Association” relationship with Lever Brothers until the end of WW2, when they were fully taken over by Lever Brothers and continued trading until the 1970s, when the Aberdeen site was closed down.

 

Who was “Soapy Ogston”?

This is a term which may have been bandied about in common conversation during the period in which the Soap and Candle manufactory was so prominent in the life of the Granite City.  But, if so, did it apply to one particular member of the Ogston clan?  A search of the British Newspaper Archive for the period 1850 – 1950 found no reference to the term “Soapy Ogston”, though it was contained in some recent publications on Aberdeen’s history and has been amplified by repetition.  If it was used in popular conversation, it was not used in any of the frequent press reports on the owners of the famous soap making facility and it seems more likely that it applied to either the works themselves or to the owner or principal at any particular time between 1853 when soap manufacture started and the 1970s when soap manufacture in Aberdeen ended.  It is to be doubted if anyone would have dared directly to address Alexander Ogston (1799), Alexander Milne Ogston (1836 – 1926), James Ogston (1845 – 1931) or Alexander Gordon Ogston (1875 – 1943) in such familiar terms.

 

The death of James Ogston (1845)

James Ogston died at his Aberdeen townhouse on 10 March 1931.  He was a chronic sufferer from an enlarged prostate gland and urinary bladder inflammation and, additionally, he had been afflicted by an inflamed gall bladder, probably caused by gall stones, for the previous two weeks.  The gross value of his personal estate was almost £248,000 (about £17,975,000 in 2021 money).  James Ogston had no offspring and so through his will he distributed his considerable estate to his nearest relatives.  He nominated his nephews Alexander Gordon Ogston, John Poynter Miller, Alexander Lawrence Miller, Robert James Burton Yates and his lawyer, William Garden as trustees of his estate.  Like his brother, AM Ogston, James Ogston’s wealth was spread across a very diverse portfolio of securities, too many (67) to list, but including some significant companies, such as The Burmah Oil Company Limited, Imperial Chemical Industries, Babcox & Wilcox and Unilever.  The biggest holdings were in Ogston and Tennant Limited - £33,750 and Lever Brothers - £40,465, the latter possibly being acquired in 1911 when Lever Brothers took control of Ogston and Tennant.

The funeral of James Ogston took place on Friday 13^th March from St Paul's Episcopal Church, Aberdeen, the traditional family kirk of the Ogstons, to Banchory-Devenick Churchyard.  The Aberdeen Press and Journal, of course, gave an extensive account of the occasion.  “A large and distinguished company of county, military, and business friends attended the funeral of Colonel James Ogston of Kildrummy from St Paul's Episcopal Church, Aberdeen, to Banchory-Devenick Churchyard yesterday. There were many manifestations of sorrow on the part of residents in the neighbourhood of the church, where his business premises are situated. Surrounded by beautiful flowers, the coffin rested in the chancel of the church, with which the family has been connected for over a century, and in which there is a tablet to the memory of Mrs Ogston, who died four years ago. A simple, touching service was conducted by the Rev. Stanley Val Green rector of St Paul's”.  “While within the church was gathered a large company of mourners, including many well-known men in both the city and county, outside was a large crowd of people, who waited throughout the service although snow lay on the ground and the conditions were severe. White-surpliced choir boys filed out of the church at the head of the cortege and lined part of the avenue while the coffin was borne between their ranks to the hearse”.  “The whole countryside wore a shroud of snow when the funeral reached the old churchyard of Banchory-Devenick, and in the dead wintry stillness the coffin was carried to the family vault. Here Green conducted the committal service before the coffin was lowered into the vault. The chief mourners and pall-bearers were Brigadier-General Charles Ogston, Mr Alexander Gordon Ogston of Ardoe, Mr John Poynter Miller, Heathcot, Mr Alexander Lawrence Miller, Mr H. N. Ogston, Colonel Yates (nephews), Mr Bruce, factor, Kildrummy; and Mr D. M. Strath, of Ogston and Tennant”.  This was almost the end of an era with the passing of the second Ogston brother who had both ownership and control of the Soap and Candle Works in Aberdeen.

James Ogston funeral cortege leaving St Paul's church

James Ogston's grave, Banchory-Devenick

James Ogston’s personal estate was distributed widely amongst his nephews and nieces through bequests and annuities.  The only non-family people to be rewarded for service were his factor and his forester at Kildrummy and his nurse in Aberdeen, who received £1500, increased from an earlier award of £1000.  James clearly came to depend upon her help as his ill-health progressed.  Ardhuncart Lodge with associated ground was passed to his niece, Marjory Mary, the wife of his friend, Colonel Yates and the rest of the Kildrummy estate, with the mansion house and income was passed in liferent to his nephew Charles Ogston, who had become a surrogate son to him in his later years.  There was also a stipulation that if Charles Ogston left an heir, the property was to be conveyed absolutely to the heir on reaching the age of majority.  At the time of James Ogston’s death, Charles Ogston was 54 and unmarried.  He never did marry, so the estate then passed to Mrs Marjory Mary Yates or her heirs.

The destiny of James Ogston’s substantial collection of paintings was determined in his will as follows.  That part of the collection at 27 Albyn Place was to be moved to Kildrummy and the whole collection was passed for liferent use to Charles Ogston and absolutely to his heir, if any.  Otherwise, the paintings were to pass for liferent use to Mrs Marjory Yates and then to her daughter, Eileen Marjory.  But the intended final destination was the Aberdeen Art Gallery, where James Ogston had spent so many happy hours indulging his passion for fine art.  However, there was a condition attached to the acceptance of this gift, “… provided these paintings get a permanent and special room and are known and designated as the Kildrummy Collection”.  The collection never did reach Aberdeen Art Gallery though it has not been discovered if the collection ever reached the stage of being offered there.

 

The death of Alexander Milne Ogston

About 2 May 1926, Alexander Milne Ogston suffered an accident which caused him to break his femur.  He died at Ardoe House ten days later, apparently as a result of the shock of this injury.  A M Ogston was 90 years old and had been remarkably active mentally and physically well into his 80s.  Charles Ogston, his second son, registered the death.  At the time Charles was living at 27 Albyn Place, which was the city home of his uncle, James Ogston.

Alexander Milne Ogston’s gross personal estate amounted to a remarkable £376,663 (about £24.5 million in 2021 money).  Of course, very little was in cash and his investments were quite diversified.  He held substantial stock and share holdings in the following companies, North British and Mercantile Insurance Company Limited, The Scottish Northern Investment Trust Limited, The Second Scottish Northern Investment Trust Limited, The Third Scottish Northern Investment Trust Limited, The Scottish Western Investment Company Limited, The Caledonian Trust Company Limited, The Burmah Oil Company Limited, Scottish Oils Limited, Aberdeen Newspapers Limited, Wardle and Davenport Limited, Harrods (Buenos Aires) Limited, Reckitt and Sons Limited, Tait and Lyle Limited, Babcock and Wilcox Limited, Boots Pure Drug Company Limited, Lever Brothers Limited, Borax Consolidated Limited, The Mysore Gold Mining Company Limited, Nundydroog Mines Limited, The Imperial Tobacco Company Limited, British American Tobacco Company Limited, Employer’s Liability Assurance Corporation Limited, The United Tobacco Companies (South) Limited and Victory Bonds.  His property portfolio included the estates of Ardoe, Heathcot and Shannaburn, and property in Spring Garden, Aberdeen, which yielded a regular income from rentals of farms, houses, etc.  It is remarkable how many of the companies, or their successors, in which he invested are still trading in 2022.

The laird of Ardoe had five children, three sons and two daughters, all of whom were alive at the time of his death and four of whom were married, son Charles being the exception.  The Trust Disposition and Settlement (Scottish name for the will plus codicils) of AM Ogston nominated Alexander Gordon Ogston, his son, James Ogston, his brother and John Poynter Miller, his nephew as trustees.   The will was simply constructed in principle.  Each son was to inherit 2/8^th of his net estate and each daughter 1/8^th, after debts had been met and bequests paid.  No justification was given for this difference between sons and daughters, but it probably related to the concept that a husband provides for a wife.  The lands of Ardoe including Cotbank and the solum of the reservoir between Ardoe and Heathcot for storage of water in connection with the electric lighting of the mansion house were to go to Alexander Gordon Ogston.  The lands of Heathcot and Shannaburn were to go to Charles Ogston.  The values of these estates were specified in the will and were to count towards the sons’ overall 2/8^th shares.

The Aberdeen Press and Journal (successor since 1922 to the Aberdeen Journal) was fulsome in its tribute to Alexander Milne Ogston, as shown in the following extracts from its coverage.  “Although he had reached the great age of 90 years, Mr Ogston was possessed of remarkable mental vigour, and almost to the last continued to take a personal interest in the affairs of Messrs Ogston and Tennant, Ltd., paying an almost daily visit to the offices at the Gallowgate”.  “With his younger brother, Colonel James Ogston of Kildrummy, he was identified with a period of great development in the history of the firm, by which the name of Messrs Alexander Ogston and Sons became a household word at home and of wide repute abroad”.  “An arduous worker, shrewd, far-seeing, and revealing distinct powers of initiative, enterprise, and resource, Mr Ogston left his mark upon the expansion of the Aberdeen concern, whose premises now occupy an extensive area between the Gallowgate and Loch Street, with plant and equipment of the most up-to-date description”.  “Quiet and reserved, Mr Ogston was nevertheless an approachable man. He was held high in esteem by those associated with him in business and in public life, and the firm's workpeople”.

Alexander Milne Ogston’s funeral took place from Ardoe House to Banchory Devenick churchyard on 15^th May and the service was conducted jointly by the ministers of Banchory Devenick and of Portlethen.  “Mr Grant read portions of Scripture, and Mr Mackenzie offered prayer, in which he gave thanks for Mr Ogston's finished life, for the friends now taken from their fellowship, and for the great gifts of mind and heart with which he was endowed. Thanks were also given for the good deeds done by Mr Ogston to the church which he loved so well, and in which as elder and office-bearer he served for so long and so faithfully; for the public services rendered by him to the community and for his liberality to institutions which had for their end the betterment of his fellows. The interment took place in the family vault in the churchyard of Banchory-Devenick, where also rest Mrs Ogston, who died 17 years ago, and the late Mr Ogston's father and mother. Mr Ogston was the oldest member and communicant of the Church of Banchory-Devenick”.  “The chief mourners and pallbearers were—Mr Alexander Gordon Ogston, Shannaburn (eldest son and the new laird of Ardoe); Brigadier-General Charles Ogston, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., late Deputy-Director of Organisation, War Office (son); James Norman Ogston (son), Colonel James Ogston of Kildrummy (brother), Colonel R. J. Saumarez, Royal Marines (son-in-law); Mr P. J. Millar, Mr A. L. Millar, and Mr F. A. Willet”.  So ended the life of one of Aberdeen’s most outstanding citizens of the 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

Grave of Alexander Milne Ogston

 

Conclusion

The North-East of Scotland has produced many entrepreneurs, often not blessed with a university education yet able, through natural wit and drive, to create firms at least of local importance and sometimes of national and international note.  This blogsite has chronicled the rise of such men as William McCombie (1805) and Hugh Watson (1787), the originators of the Aberdeen Angus beef cattle breed, John Begg (1804) the developer of the Lochnagar distillery and the Whisky brand of the same name, the Reid family which created the Ben Reid nursery and William McCombie (1809) the joint founder of the Aberdeen Free Press newspaper, which merged with the Aberdeen Journal in 1922 to form the Aberdeen Press and Journal, one of the oldest daily newspapers in the world.  The Ogston family, beginning with Alexander Ogston (1766), generated a major soap and candle manufactory in Aberdeen which operated for about 170 years before being subsumed fully into that giant international producer of consumer products, Unilever.  The Ogstons too had native wit in abundance.

One measure of the success of the “Soapy” Ogstons is to chronicle the growing wealth (personal or moveable estate) passed on by each generation to the next.  The data show a remarkable progression and are expressed in 2021 money values. 

Alexander Ogston                   b1766              £713,190         passed on 1838          First generation                                  

Alexander Ogston                   b1799              £6,910,167      passed on 1869          Second generation

Alexander Milne Ogston         b1836              £24,388,320    passed on 1926          Third generation

James Ogston                         b1845              £17,252,165    passed on 1931          Third generation

Total AMO + JO                                             £41,640,485

Over three generations, from Alexander Ogston (1766) to Alexander Milne Ogston (1836), with brother James (1845), family wealth multiplied by about 60x

The development and evolution of the firm proceeded by a number of clear steps, each business decision appearing to be considered and carefully planned.  The diversification from dealing in lint and thread to also manufacturing candles in 1802, was at a time when flax was declining in importance as a fibre in the North-East of Scotland.  It was also in a period of antagonism between Britain and France, which led to outright war the following year and progressively to an attempt by Napoleon I to isolate Britain from Continental trade.  The market for candles thus came to depend more on nationally made products.  There were other aspects of Aberdeen and its hinterland which supported candle manufacture.  The town had two universities, with their students, and a substantial population of advocates, both groups needing to read and write in the dark hours which were particularly long in mid-winter, when there are fewer than 8 hours of daylight at that latitude.  The North-Eastern counties of Scotland were and are well-known for their production of beef cattle.  Until the mid-1820s many cattle were sent south with the drovers to be fattened and slaughtered elsewhere but then a change in agricultural practice came about with the extensive cultivation of turnips, which were then used for winter feeding of cattle in cattle courts.  They were then sent south in a fat condition by sea or killed locally and exported as carcasses.  Thus, there was a local supply of tallow which was used to make the cheapest type of candle.  Aberdeen was a good location for a tallow chandlery.

Another significant change in business practice must have occurred early in the history of the firm and that was the move from retailing to wholesaling the product.  A precise date for this change has not been determined but it was probably related to the increasing industrialisation of the production process, the economies of scale and the production volumes achieved.  

But tallow candles had their drawbacks, as they were both smoky and smelly.  More expensive candles, with better burning characteristics, were manufactured from beeswax, paraffin wax, whale oil or palm oil, all raw materials which were more expensive and generally not so readily available as tallow.  This led to Ogstons becoming agents for Price, the London-based manufacturer of up-market candles, in 1848.  By this arrangement they acquired access to a range of high-quality products which they were not initially equipped to produce, and which complemented their own range of tallow candles.  However, the draw-back of this association was that their profit margin on Price’s candles must have been much lower than on goods emanating from their factory in Loch Street.  But the association with Price probably added cachet to their own status, since Price held a Royal warrant.

The rail network did not reach Aberdeen until 1854 and before that date, the status of Aberdeen as the major port on the north-east coast of Scotland was significant to Ogstons, both for the import of raw materials and for the export of candles.

Although soap manufacture shares common raw materials with candle manufacture, Ogstons did not diversify into soap manufacture until 1853.  This was also the year that the tax on soap was rescinded, and it seems likely that the two events were not coincidental, but that the tax abolition stimulated the diversification.  There was some local production of potash (potassium hydroxide) from kelp burning which aided Ogstons’ start with the manufacture of soft soap.

About 1861, Ogstons ended their agency with Price and began to manufacture a more expensive range of candles themselves, while still maintaining their production of the basic tallow variant.  This must have led to an increase of profit margin on expensive candles.  In 1875, Ogstons recruited a highly experienced Price employee, James Lees, to take charge of their candle operations.

There was almost constant expansion and upgrading of the Loch Street site, with the introduction of new machinery and increased capacity but this brought its own problems due to the nature of the operations, which generated smelly emissions and annoyed the neighbours.  In turn, they complained to the town council and sought to obstruct Ogstons’ expansion.  It was necessary for the Ogston principals, especially Alexander Milne Ogston, to develop good working relationships with both councillors and town officials, being as helpful as possible in placating the protesters.  Of course, as their importance as employers grew, the town council had to be helpful to Ogstons and a mutually beneficial association was the outcome.

A succession of fires, some serious, must have brought the realisation to both the town council and local residents that the Ogston factory was in the wrong place, because of the proximity of domestic housing, but by that time it was too late to contemplate removal to a more remote site.  Ogstons were obliged to make their facility as safe as possible by isolating its different operations from each other, by ensuring there was a good supply of stored water on site and, eventually, by installing the latest automatic fire detection and suppression equipment.  They also had to introduce measures to reduce smells and to conduct smoke away from the site by the construction of tall chimneys.

The management of the Soap and Candle Works also realised the value of cultivating a cohesive, contented, loyal and hard-working employee complement and this was achieved by promoting social, cultural and sporting outlets for their men and their families.  This even extended to throwing open the grounds of Ardoe House, one of the most elegant mansions on Deeside, for communal use at the annual staff picnic.  For the Ogston workers and their families, a visit to Ardoe must have seemed like a dream; something that had appeared unattainable for ordinary working people.  Ardoe House, with its Scots baronial architecture and pale granite construction, is still one of the most eye-catching buildings in Aberdeen’s hinterland.

The management of the Soap and Candle Works was adept at strategic thinking, and this extended to the elimination of local competition, the development of brands for their products and to strategic cooperation with other manufacturers, the first of which was the Price company in London.  Cooperation then extended to collaborating with Tennants, the giant Glasgow-based industrial chemical manufacturer and finally to associating with Lever Brothers and its visionary principal, William Lever.

Both Alexander M Ogston and James Ogston were admired as businessmen and industrialists and their services as directors (and their money as investors) were sought by many other firms in fields as diverse as textiles, mass transportation, the print media, distilling, and banking and finance.

Of course, the personal rewards for the owners of the business were substantial and the wealth and prestige accrued, especially by Alexander Milne Ogston and James Ogston, required them to play extensive social and civic roles, which they did with great éclat.  Personal wealth also allowed them to indulge their private interests.  Both commissioned new, grand mansions in the countryside, contributed to charities in their purviews and accumulated substantial personal art collections.  Alexander Milne Ogston participated extensively in local government, his local church, his local school board, the theatre and horse racing.  Brother James indulged his great love of the military by having an extensive career in the volunteer artillery formations set up to defend Aberdeen in case of attack, or to contribute to foreign wars, and through his devotion to Conservative politics.

But the Soap and Candle Works is no more, largely obliterated by the redevelopment of the site between the Gallowgate and Loch Street for the needs of a new Aberdeen economy, with a quite different focus to that of the 19^th and the first half of the 20^th centuries.  The new headquarters building, of 1922 vintage, alone survives, passed by hundreds of Aberdonians each day, a reminder of different times in the Granite City.  But how many of them notice the name etched into the granite façade, “Ogston and Tennant”, or know of its achievements?  It is to be hoped that this history of the Works will help to remind both Aberdonians and others of this sector of the city's rich industrial heritage.

Entrance to Ogston & Tennant offices, Gallowgate

Don Fox

20220511

donaldpfox@gmail.com